It was another strong weekend for Bison Men’s Tennis as the team competed in Pittsburgh, Pa. this past weekend at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational.
“We are excited to have multiple first-year players compete in their first away match. This will be a learning experience and an opportunity to demonstrate their skills against strong opponents and teams,” Brendan McDonald ’26 said.
The weekend started Friday, Sept. 20 as the Orange and Blue sent four players to compete. McDonald collected a singles win over a Duquesne player, 6-1, 6-1. Felix Steindl ’28 carried the momentum with a win himself going 6-4, 6-2. These victories allowed both Steindl and McDonald to improve to 4-0 records in the early season. Nelson Alapi ’28 and Shiv Singh ’28 dropped their matches to Carnegie Mellon but came back the following day.
The Bison all won their singles matches on Saturday, leaving an impact of a 4-0 record. Singh took on Edinboro and came out on top, 6-3, 6-4. Alapi took a narrow win of 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 against Carnegie Mellon. McDonald was victorious against Edinboro, with a final score of 6-0, 6-2. Steindl continued the streak with a 7-5, 6-2 win against Edinboro. Singh and Alapi finished the day with two doubles wins, both 6-2 counts. McDonald and Steindl dropped their first doubles match to Carnegie Mellon, 6-3 but came back to defeat another home pair in a tiebreaker.
Sunday concluded the weekend for the Bison with a split finish in doubles and a 3-4 finish in singles. After some mixing up of doubles teams, a new pair, Singh and McDonald, was created. The two took a 6-3 victory against Duquesne. The first years continued to showcase their skills with straight-set wins in singles against Edinboro. Steindl dominated with a 6-0, 6-1 performance, while Alapi finished with a 6-4, 6-4 performance and Singh came out on top, 6-2, 6-1. “Being able to shine during individual matches shows how strong our team is and how prepared we are for the upcoming tournaments,” McDonald shared.
The Orange and Blue will take a break from competition this weekend after an invitational cancellation. The team will compete at Richmond’s River City Open from Friday, Oct. 4 to Sunday, Oct. 6, looking to continue their stellar fall season.
