Cooper Mead

Writer

The men’s tennis team split up last weekend to compete in the Princeton Invitational and the Mount St. Mary’s Invitational.

At the Princeton Invitational, Josh Katten ’13 and Evan Zimmer ’13 both won their singles matches, while Katten also teamed up with Kelly Morque ’13 to win their first-round doubles match and defeat Princeton’s Mohamed El Tonbari and Michael Lin, 8-4. Despite Katten’s first round singles win over Andrew Berman of UPenn (4-6, 6-4, 6-2), he had a tough second round match-up and lost to St. John’s MJ Every after dropping the opening frame 6-1. Zimmer’s first match went well as he beat Cornell’s Alex Sidney 6-3, 6-2, but he was defeated by Yale’s Kyle Dawson 6-0, 3-6, 6-1.

As the tournament progressed, the Orange and Blue struggled as Nick Bybel ’16 lost his match to Arvis Berzins of Fairleigh Dickinson 6-3, 6-0, which ended the Bison’s contention in the singles bracket. Similarly, Morque and Katten brought the team’s competition to a close at the Princeton Invitational when they lost in an 8-5 contest against Wake Forest’s Sam Bloom and Brendan Henry.

In Emmitsburg, Md. the Bison were only able to send two players through to the second round. Octavio Canibe ’15 won 7-5, 3-6, 10-7 over Duk Young Park of Morgan State and Jonathan DeFrancesch ’15 defeated Jordan Kuchta of Loyola (Md.) 6-4, 6-3 in the first round. In the semi-final round, Canibe was a 6-2, 3-6, 10-4 winner over Adam Salam of Mount St. Mary’s and DeFrancesch defeated Morgan State’s Jannick Tash 5-7, 6-3, 10-4 in their Flight B semifinal.

In the doubles arena, partners Canibe and Rosen won 9-8 against Mike Salomon and Salam of Mount St. Mary’s. The Bison duo lost their next round match to Duk Young Park and Tash of Morgan State, 8-4.

On Sunday, Canibe lost to Matt Blake from Mount St. Mary’s in the finals by a score of 7-5, 6-2 to place second in the Flight A title bout. Also competing in the finals was DeFrancesch, who defeated Evan Ward 6-4, 6-4, and won the Flight B singles title, tallying a career best with three consecutive wins this weekend. Aidan Lynch ’14 also defeated Bobby Gorczakowski of Loyola 7-5, 6-4 in the backdraw.

“Overall, it was a successful weekend for everyone. There was solid competition at both tournaments and we got a lot of matches in, which is very important at this point in the season. We hope to have a productive week of practice and be at our best for the St. Joes tournament,” Morque said.

After the Bison’s strong performance at the Mount St. Mary’s Invitational, they will prepare for the St. Joseph’s Invitational in Philadelphia on Sept. 21-23.