Men’s Tennis Finishes Year With 6-16 Record

By JAKE GROGAN
STAFF WRITER

The tennis team, which will graduate four key players, will look for a rebound year next season.  (THE RAM ARCHIVES)

The tennis team, which will graduate four key players, will look for a rebound year next season. (THE RAM ARCHIVES)

The Rams season came to an end in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Championships, as the second seeded and defending conference champion VCU Rams took another step toward defending their title.

The tournament kicked off with a seven-ten match-up, as the seventh seeded St. Bonaventure Bonnies took on the tenth seeded Fordham Rams. An 8-2 win at second doubles for Matty Najfeld and Kuba Kowalski and an 8-5 win at third doubles for J.J. Tauil and Michael Puntillo secured the doubles point for the Rams, resulting in an unfinished first doubles match in which Mischa Koran and Alastair Barnes were up 5-4 in the first set.

The singles competition saw a similar level of domination from the Rams, as they took three of the first four matches played to guarantee a victory. Tauil lost at the third singles spot 6-2, 6-2 to the Bonnies’ Ramazan Nureev to even the match at one point apiece, a tie that would be short lived. Barnes, Max Peara and Najfeld all won in straight sets to give the Rams a 4-3 victory in the tournament’s first round. Mischa Koran and Puntillo were both up in their sets but did not finish due to the guaranteed victory.

“I think that it was a pretty good conference match,” said Najfeld, when asked about the Rams upset over the Bonnies. “Beating St Bonaventure was a huge motivation boost going in to the match against No. 57 ranked VCU.”

The quarterfinals started with the doubles point going to VCU, after Najfeld and Kowalski fell 8-4 at second doubles and Koran and Barnes lost 8-6 at the first doubles spot, leading to a one point deficit heading in to the singles competition.

The first singles point came easily for VCU, as Kowalski was forced to withdraw from the sixth singles spot. Point number three came from the third singles spot when Tauil fell to Nick Jones 6-0, 6-1. The match ended when Michal Voscek defeated Koran 6-2, 6-1 at fourth singles, putting Fordham on the wrong end of a 4-1 match score.

“My opponent from VCU beat two players in the University of Virginia’s starting lineup, whose team is ranked in the top five in the country,” said Najfeld, when asked about his singles opponent. “In general I’m pretty happy with my performance. Unfortunately we weren’t able to beat VCU.” Najfeld lost his first set 6-4 before ending his second set in a 4-4 tie after the overall results were solidified.

“VCU is a great team as obvious as that is,” Tauil added. “They were really good players overall stroke wise and have many top former junior international players. With that said we did have a lot of guys banged up which in the end always makes a difference so we look froward to playing them again in the future.”

The loss caps what has been a disappointing year for the Rams. The team finished 6-16 overall, a record not indicative of the talent on the team. The inability to cash in with a talented roster will be costly for Fordham, as they are losing a number of athletes to graduation, including Koran, Kowalski and Najfeld. An influx of talent at the underclass level will be necessary to complement the rising juniors if Fordham is to compete in a stacked Atlantic 10 conference next season.

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