Freshmen Brown and Wang Lead the Way as Yale Secures 5-2 Victories Over Boston College and Monmouth
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The Yale men's tennis team enjoyed its most successful day of the season on Sunday, finishing off a weekend at home with back-to-back dual match victories over Boston College and Monmouth. Sunday's breakthrough wins came off the heels of consecutive losses, and improved the Elis' dual match record to 2-2 on the season. These victories, which came against two strong regional opponents, will no doubt provide relief for a Yale squad whose performance has suffered in recent weeks due to significant injuries and unlucky breaks.
Yale's match against Boston College actually kicked off on Saturday afternoon with the singles round, and was completed on Sunday morning with the three doubles matches. In singles, the Bulldogs submitted an exceptional performance despite the absence of top players Tyler Lu and Ziqi Wang, winning five of six and claiming the match before the second day. Among Saturday's top performers were Yale's Fedor Andrienko, Nathan Brown, Alex Hagermoser, Photos Photiades and Dennis Wang, all of whom won their matches in straight sets. Photiades and Wang faced the most resistance, however, with both needing to clinch a second set tiebreak (at No. 6 and No. 3 singles, respectively) to secure victory. And though Yale's Martin Svenning was the lone Bulldog to fall on the day, the senior did well in the top singles spot to push BC star Hank Workman in a 6-7, 6-4, (10-4) battle.
With the match already decided in their favor, the Elis were able to experiment with the doubles lineup on Sunday morning and give several players valuable match experience. Although BC ultimately took the doubles point, the home crowd was happy to see two freshmen (Brown and Wang) at No. 1 doubles and junior James Ratchford represent Yale on the court for the first time this season.
The Bulldogs' second doubles round of the day against Monmouth, on the other hand, was brutally efficient. Yale clinched the doubles point within an hour after Jason Brown and Hagermoser won 6-0 at No. 3 doubles and Martin Svenning and Ziqi Wang downed Monmouth's Estrada and Bekheit 6-2 in the No. 2 spot. The singles round that followed was slightly more competitive than against Boston College, with two matches going to a third set. While Dennis Wang won his second match of the day 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 3 position, his classmate Nathan Brown did the same at the No. 5 position with a dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory. Assuming the No. 1 singles position against Monmouth, Ziqi Wang also continued his impressive run of results with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Monmouth's Przemyslaw Filipek. Senior captain Jason Brown also posted his second victory of the dual match season by topping Alberto Guiffrida 6-3, 7-6 at No. 6 singles. The two losses for Yale on Sunday afternoon came at the No. 2 and No. 4 positions, where Hagermoser and Andrienko both fell in a 7-5 third set.
After playing an exhausting weekend of tennis, the Elis will take pride in the fact that they bounced back from a Saturday loss to post back-to-back wins on Sunday. Although the current lineup is not at full strength, from now until the end of the season, the Bulldogs may look at Sunday's performance as real proof of their perseverance and ability. The team will look to continue its positive momentum next weekend with matches against Army and Maryland-Baltimore County.
Report by Cameron Ferguson '18, Yale Sports Publicity
