By Dylan Balsamo

What, perhaps, has been Fordham Men’s Tennis’ Achilles’ heel this season has been maintaining consistency. This was a problem for the team yet again; not only did they suffer through inconsistency but also bad weather. Fordham came into the week expecting to play four games, all of which were to be played at home on the Hawthorn/Rooney Tennis Courts. Only two of them ended up being played.

The other two games were going to be played on Sunday, March 31 but were not played due to rain.

The first game against Yeshiva was scheduled to be played on April 3, and the second game against Manhattanville was cancelled entirely.

As for games that were actually played, the Rams found major success on Wednesday, March 27 in their first home spring season match, shutting out Rider 7-0.

Fordham was ahead out of the gate, sweeping the doubles matches as well. Juniors Allen Thornes and Fabian Hansch Mauritzson defeated Lysander Payano Almo and Peter Komosinki 6-2, Sophomore Max Green and Junior Finn Kemper beat Javier Melendez and Nicholas Salazar 6-2, and sophomore Lutwin de Macar and sophomore Alex Makatsaria took down Brandon Gildea and Griffin Clark 6-0.

After securing that first point, the Rams won all six singles matches. Kemper swept Melendez 6-0, 6-0, Makatsaria beat Almo 6-2, 6-2, junior Jeremy Chung took down Peter Komosinski 6-1, 6-2, Thornes won against Ciacarro 6-3, 6-4, freshman Jofre Segarra beat Griffin Clark 6-0, 7-5 and junior Steven Duka dominated Salazar 6-0, 6-1.

Fordham was not able to find the same success when they returned to action on Saturday, hosting George Washington and dropping the day 5-2.

The Rams’ points against GW came from singles wins from Green, who beat Zicheng Zeng 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Makatsaria, who defeated Dennis Afansev 6-4, 7(7)-6(2). However, the rest of the sunny day in the Bronx was pretty dreary for Fordham.

They dropped the doubles point after being swept in the round, as Mauritzson and Thornes fell to Ben Barnett and Zeng 7(7)-6(3), Green and Kemper lost to Jakub Behun and Lawrence Sciglitano 6-4, and de Macar and Makatsaria were defeated by Hanyu Liu and Ryan Navarro 7(7)-6(5).

Fordham lost the additional four singles matches, as Mauritzon lost to Navarro 6-1, 6-0, Kemper dropped his matchup with Ben Barnett 7(10)-6(8), 6-2, de Macar fell to Sciglitano 6-4, 6-2, and Chung lost to Hanyu Liu 6-1, 7-5.

After the loss, Kemper admitted that with this being the start of their outdoor season, “most of the team, I included, had some difficulties to adapt to the windy and colder conditions. We only had three outdoor practices so far, and GW was obviously a tough opponent to face. We will work hard the next couple of weeks to be ready to play our best tennis at the A10’s.”

As those Atlantic 10 Championship inches closer next week, the Rams will see another 4 games played, with the game against Yeshiva being rescheduled on Wednesday April 3 and road matchups against Saint Joseph’s and St. Francis College of Brooklyn before returning to the Bronx on Sunday against Baruch.