Feb. 26, 2012
Box Score
Boston, Mass. -
The Fordham University men's tennis squad wrapped up its weekend in New England with a convincing 5-2 win over Boston University at the Track and Tennis center on Sunday. With the win, the Rams advance to 10-2 on the year.
The Rams opened play by taking a hard-fought doubles point. Max Peara and Peder Gram won at third doubles over Alex Hallenback and Marcus VanBerkel, 8-3, but Srikar Alla and J.J. Tauil fell at second doubles to Boston University's Jesse Freider and Emilio Teran, 8-6. That brought the doubles point down to the competition at the first position where Kuba Kowalski and Mischa Koran fought back to force a tiebreaker with Josh Friedman and Michael Kopelman, winning the tiebreaker 7-4 to pull out a 9-8 win in the match.
Fordham then won four of the six singles matches. Tauil got things started at the fourth position , falling to Teran, 6-1, 6-3, but Alla got the point back for the Rams, winning at second singles over Freider, 6-1, 6-1. Kowalski gave Fordham its third point of the match with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Friedman at first singles and Koran clinched the match for the Rams when he defeated Kopelman, 6-3, 6-1 the third spot.
Peara added a fifth point for Fordham with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Regis Chang at fifth singles before Gram almost made it 6-1 for the Rams, dropping the first set to Hallenback, 6-2, before winning the second, 6-1, to force a tiebreaker. Gram battled Hallenback in the tiebraker before falling to his counterpart, 10-8.
"I thought the doubles point was a big momentum swing for us and Mischa
and Kuba really came up big and played a great tiebreaker," said Fordham head coach Cory Hubbard. "With all the pressure resting on them, they played smart and clutch. Being up 1-0 gave us a boost to start the singles. The top three guys once again did a tremendous job of coming out focused and never gave them a chance to get in the match."
"To be honest I have been nervous about this match for a week," continued Hubbard. "It was the first back-to-back on the road in a different surface. Plus they are a solid team, much better than their record, and played so many close matches. But I am very proud of my guys. They go out and take care of business because every time out, they are the hungrier team. Our doubles continues to get better, which will be key as our schedule really starts to get tougher in the coming weeks. But to be sitting here at 10-2 and both losses to nationally ranked teams really shows the progress we are making and it started last year with a relentless attitude."
