March 31, 2012
Final Stats
Washington, D.C. -
After falling to the fifth-place team from last year's Atlantic 10 championships, the Fordham men's tennis team stepped it up today, taking on the defending Atlantic 10 champions, George Washington University, at the GW Tennis Center. The Rams gave the Colonials a handful before falling, 5-2, with Srikar Alla and Max Peara accounting for the Fordham points.
The match opened with George Washington earning the doubles point, winning all three doubles matches. Ugur Atalay and Francisco Dias defeated Mischa Koran and Kuba Kowalski at first doubles, 8-5, Ulrik Thomsen and Alexander van Gils upended Alla and Peara at the second position, 8-5, and Leonardo Lapentti and Viktor Svensson were victorious over Peder Gram and J.J. Tauil at number three, 8-3
Singles play opened with the Rams picking up a point as Peara defeated Thomsen in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, at fifth singles before the Colonials got the point back when van Gils bested Koran, 6-3, 6-3, at the third spot.
The next completed match was at first singles where Dias, who is ranked 100th in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll, upended Kuba Kowalski, 6-3, 6-1.
Alla got the Rams to within one, 3-2, with a straight set win over Atalay at second singles, 7-5, 6-3, for his 20th singles win of the year. But the Colonials won the match when Richard Blumenfeld knocked off Jan Krouham at sixth singles, 7-5, 6-3.
The final match to finish was at the fourth position where Gram took the first set from Lapentti, 6-0, but lost the second, 6-4, and the third, 6-0.
"Once again we were right there with chances to win," said Fordham head coach Cory Hubbard. "We were alive until the end and won three first sets and were battling back in the other two matches. We lost the three matches to the top teams in the A-10, but we definitely were capable of winning every match. We have established ourselves as a legitimate team and I know no team will want to see us in the tournament."
"Today Srikar and Max played their best I've seen," continued Hubbard. "Peder did the most unbelievable job of playing with heart and the most energy I have seen. Even though he lost, his first set 6-0 was a huge boost and he was so loud he was impacting every one of our guys positively. He did exactly what I asked him to do in being the energizer. The A-10 tourney will be the most competitive ever as the conference is about eight teams deep and capable of beating anyone. The good news is we are one of those teams and will look to win the programs first main draw match."
The Rams, 14-8 on the season, will next be in action on Tuesday, April 3rd, as they host Fairfield University on the Hawthorn/Rooney Courts at 4:00 p.m.
