March 18, 2012
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Bronx, N.Y. -
In NCAA Division I tennis, the doubles matches collectively only count for one point. But for the Fordham men's tennis squad that point proved to be a spark plug today as Kuba Kowalski and Mischa Koran battled back to win at first doubles in a tiebreaker that provided momentum into singles play at the Rams shutout Sacred Heart University, 7-0, on the Hawthorn/Rooney Courts.
With the win, the Rams improve to 13-3 on the season.
"The doubles point was a huge key," said head coach Cory Hubbard. "We always talk about doubles being an emotional game and to play with energy and compete hard. That's what makes college tennis great. That end of the doubles, coming down to court number one, going to a tiebreaker, fighting off match points, having match points, Mischa diving for a ball, it all made it exciting. I thought it was really important for us to get the doubles point."
The Rams opened doubles play with Peder Gram and Max Peara defeating Luka Bagi and John Lopresti at third doubles, 8-3, but Srikar Alla and J.J. Tauil dropped second doubles to Sacred Heart's Chadd Sullo and Justin Pagan, 8-5, which meant the doubles point came down to first doubles. Trailing for most of the match, Kowalski and Koran came back to force a tiebreaker and battled back from match point to defeated Logan Mohring and Jacob Miller 10-8 in the tiebreaker to win 9-8.
Fordham used that momentum to take the first set in all six singles matches en route to a clean sweep in singles with five of the matches being decided in straight sets. Tauil got things started in singles play, defeating Lopresti, 6-1, 6-2, and shortly after his match ended, Koran upended Miller, 6-3, 6-1. Kowalski clinched the match for the Rams with a 6-2, 6-2, win over Sullo at first singles and then Peara made it 5-0 for Fordham, besting Pagan, 6-4, 6-5. Alla was the fifth Ram to win in straight sets, taking third singles from Mohring, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Gram completed the sweep for Fordham but needed a tiebreaker for the win. He defeated Bagi in the first set, 7-5, but lost the second by the same score. Gram than came back to win the tiebreaker, 10-7, to give the Rams a 7-0 win.
"I'm very happy with the results from this weekend, especially since it was our first time outside this spring" said Hubbard. "I thought our guys did a very good job yesterday coming out and taking care of business and today we knew that it would be a little bit tougher of a match since Sacred Heart is a good team that made the NCAA tournament last year. I'm very happy to get a seven-zero win and put ourselves into position as we start our conference run this week."
The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday, March 21st, as they travel to Philadelphia to face Temple University at 1:00 p.m.
