Oct. 20, 2012
New Haven, Conn. -
With all four players in action on day two of the ITA Regionals, the Fordham men's tennis team had an incredible day, posting a 6-1 record in seven matches, which included four upset wins over seeded players in singles competition.
"Today was an unbelievable day and a historic performance for our program. We went combined 6-1 and beat players from Brown, Penn, Dartmouth, and Yale, and knocked off several seeds," said head coach Cory Hubbard.
All four of Fordham players, Kuba Kowlaski, Srikar Alla, Emilio Mora, and Mischa Koran, are all still alive in some fashion in the tournament, as Kowalski and Alla are alive in singles action, while Mora and Koran advanced to the round of 16 in doubles.
"To have all four players still in the tournament with a doubles team in the final 16 and two players in the final 16 of singles is a huge accomplishment. We have made a lot of progress, but today, we showed we are right there with the top programs in our region. We created a lot of momentum and there was a lot of buzz about Fordham among opposing coaches and players, recognizing how far we have come," said Hubbard.
Doubles action continued on the men's side with Mora and Koran taking out Brown's Michael Reichmann and Tom Deighton, 8-4, to advance to the round of 16. The Fordham duo will face Columbia's Dragos Ignat and Eric Rubin in the next match.
In singles play, the Rams posted wins in all three second round matches, which included two upsets. Alla got things going with an upset victory over #15 seed Jeremy Court of Penn, 6-3, 7-5. Kowalski, who was a #17-32 seed, then held serve against Marist's Will Reznek, defeating the Red Fox, 7-5, 7-6. Mora completed the second round sweep, upsetting #17-32 seed Cameron Ghorbani of Dartmouth, 6-4, 6-3.
In the round of 32, Alla and Kowalski continued their winning ways, while Mora's came to an end. Alla pulled off his second upset of the day, defeating #17-32 seed Damien David of Buffalo, as the two players split the first two sets, 6-7 and 7-6. Alla was then up 3-0 in the third before David was forced to retire. Kowalski followed suit with another upset win, as he knocked off #14 seed Daniel Hoffman of Yale, 6-3, 6-4. Mora had the toughest test, as he faced #7 seed Marc Powers of Yale and fell, 7-5, 6-4.
Next up in the round of 16, Alla will face #3 seed John Huang of Yale, while Kowalski meets #4 seed Vasco Mladenov of St. John's.
"Our guys fought so hard and played with energy and played with heart and mind. Tomorrow will be another huge opportunity for all four guys to get into the quarterfinals and continue to build on what we have started."
