March 28, 2012
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Bronx, N.Y. -
After waiting over two hours for the rains to pass and the courts to dry, the Fordham University men's tennis team finally took to the Hawthorn/Rooney Court today to face Fairleigh Dickinson University. Unfortunately the Rams came up short in the match, falling to the Knights, 4-3.
Fordham opened the match by dropping the double points to FDU as the Knights won two of the three matches. Mark Hemy and Peter Skvarka defeated Fordham's Peder Gram and J.J. Tauil at third doubles, 8-5, and then Arvis Berzins and Ibrahim Shams bested Kuba Kowalski and Mischa Koran, 8-4, at first singles to clinch the doubles point for FDU. Fordham's Srikar Alla and Max Peara were victorious at second doubles over Yuri Gricheno and Dominic Devaux-Lovell, 8-6.
In singles play, FDU took a 2-0 lead when Skvarka knocked off Tauil at the fifth position, winning the first set, 6-2, before Tauil won the second, 6-3, to force a tiebreaker which Skvarka won, 6-2.
The Rams got on the board at second singles as Alla defeated Shams in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, his sixth straight singles win, but Gram was upended by Devaux-Lovell at the number six spot, 7-5, 6-4, as the Knights took a 2-1 lead.
Koran pulled the Rams to within one, 3-2, when he defeated Gricheno at third singles, 6-2, 7-6 (5), but Peara fell to Hemy at third singles, 6-3, 6-4, to help FDU seal the match.
Kowalski picked up the final point of the match, besting Berzins at first singles, winning the first set, 6-1, before dropping the second, 6-3, but he coming back to win the third, 6-3.
"This was another battle for our guys," said head coach Cory Hubbard. "Unfortunately we have come up a little short. Once again the top three guys played great and Srikar played one of his best matches of the year. FDU is a very deep team and should make the NCAAs this year. The positive is our program has come a long way in one year, and the fact that we are getting to 4-3 with these type of teams really shows we are close and can compete with any team. Also, we are probably the youngest team in country with two sophomores and four freshman in the lineup, so we lack some experience of being in these tight matches. Against FDU and Temple we had freshman going against seniors in the deciding match. So we will get there, but our guys need to stay positive and continue to work hard and the results will come. We have another huge opportunity this weekend to get a real statement win so we have to put it behind us and be ready to play even hungrier."
With the loss, the Rams fall to 14-6 on the year. They will next be in action on Friday, March 30th, as they travel to Washington, D.C., to compete in the George Washington Round Robin Tournament. Fordham will open play on Friday at 1:00 p.m. against Charlotte.
