Bronx, N.Y. (September 23, 2013) - The Fordham University men's tennis competed recently at the USTA College Invitational held from September 20-22 at the U.S. Tennis Center in Queens. Jan Krouham was the top Fordham finisher, advancing to the semifinals in the D flight singles and advancing to the finals in the C doubles flight.
 
Krouham opened play in the D singles flight with a hard-fought win over Victor Theorin of Youngstown State, dropping the first set, 6-4, but coming back to take the second, 7-5, and the tiebreaker, 10-5. He then defeated Bucknell's Jon De Francesch in the second round, 6-0, 6-1, before falling to top-seeded Mateo Guidici of Marist, 6-3, 6-2.


Matty Najfeld, Kuba Kowalski, Max Peara, J.J. Tauil, Michael Puntillo and Peder Gram also competed in the singles competition.
 
In the A flight, Najfeld fell to Bryant's Dana Parziale in the first round, 6-3, 6-0, while in the B flight Kowalski was upended by Jonathan Raude from Boston College in the first round, winning the first set, 6-3, but dropping the second, 6-1, and the tiebreaker, 10-7.
 
In C flight singles, Tauil fell in the first round to Monmouth's Daniel Ginsburg, winning the first set, 7-5, but losing the second by the same score and the tiebreaker, 10-6.
 
In the D flight singles, Puntillo won his first round match in the D flight, as Oliver Bellomi retired in the first set but Puntillo then fell to Boston College's  Matt Wagner, 6-0, 6-1, while Peara and Gram each fell in the first round by identical 6-4, 6-0 scores, Peara to Monmouth's Brant Switzler and Gram to Dmitriy Borodkin from Morgan State.
 
Krouham was teamed up with Nick Cameron from NJIT in the C doubles flight and they won three matches to advance to the finals where they were forced to retire to injury. Krouham and Cameron won their first match against Marist's Matteo Guidici and Joe Motta, 8-4, and then took an 8-5 decision from Boston College's Alexander Aziz and Alexandre Thirouin in the second round. In the semifinals, they defeated John Bogdanovic and Kevin Budranowich from Sacred Heart, 8-6, before being forced to default the finals match against Youngstown State's Max Schmerin and Victor Theorin.
 
In other doubles play, Najfled and Kowalski teamed up in the A flight, falling in the first round to Michael McGinnis and Phil Nelson of Boston College, 9-8 (10-7), while in the B flight Peara and Tauil were bested in the first round by St. Francis' to Lawson Barter and Rodrigo Tico, 8-4.
 
In the C flight, Gram and Puntillo were upended by Max Schmerin and Victor Theorin from Youngstown State, 8-2.

The Rams return to action on Saturday, September 28, as they host New York Tech on the Hawthorn/Rooney Courts at 12:00 and then Adelphi University at 4:00 p.m.