Jan. 22, 2012

Results

Cambridge, Mass. - Members of the Fordham men's tennis team opened their spring semester this weekend at the Harvard Invitational in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The invitational was set up with singles and doubles matches featuring Fordham against players from Harvard and Marist.

"This was a great experience and exposure for our program to get invited to the Harvard Invitational," said head coach Cory Hubbard following Sunday's action.

On day one, the Rams were featured in four singles' matches and two doubles matches. Out of those six matches, the Rams had three tight one, which began with Kuba Kowalski and Srikar Alla falling to Harvard's Alex Steinroeder and Christo Schultz by a 9-7 score in doubles.

Later in singles play, the Rams came away with a win from newcomer Max Peara, as he defeated Harvard's John Thornton, 6-7, 6-0, and 10-3. Alla just missed giving Fordham a second singles win, as he fell to Harvard Andy Nguyen, 7-5, 3-6, and 6-1.

Day two, it was very close to being a banner day for Fordham's Kowalski. He was a part of a doubles win with Alla over Marist's Will Reznek and Dalen Klassen by a score of 8-6. Then in singles play, Kowalski took on Harvard's #1 player Jonathan Pearlman. Pearlman took the first set 6-2, but Kowalski rebounded to take the second set, 6-3. The third set saw Kowalski earn three match points, but Pearlman fought of all three and eventually won the decisive set, 7-5.

On day three, the Rams had four singles matches, winning two of them. Kowalski took down Harvard's Steinroeder in straight set, 7-6, 7-6, while Alla defeated Marist's Joseph Dube, 6-4, 6-4.

Hubbard on the weekend:

"Kuba almost had the win of his career, as he had three match points against Harvard # 1 and top player in the region. Kuba got better each match and he bounced back today to close out a close match against one of the top Harvard players."

"Srikar played well in doubles and picked up a good win from the top recruit from Marist."

"I was happy to see Max pick up his first collegiate win. He started a little nervous but bounced back to get a win against a player from Harvard. The next day he was able to take a set against a Harvard blue chip top 20 recruit before losing in 3 sets."

The Fordham men's tennis team will next be in action on Saturday, January, 28th, when the Rams play at Columbia University for a 2:00 PM match.