Box Score vs. Carnegie Mellon
Box Score vs. Oberlin
PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- Trailing by one point with just two matches left to finish, the Christopher Newport men's team captured a thrilling come-from-behind victory over Oberlin College on Sunday afternoon, salvaging a split to close out the fall schedule. The Captains opened the day suffering a 9-0 setback in a hard-fought matchup with the top-ten host Tartans, but bounced back for a 5-4 win in a neutral site bout with the Yeomen.
The reigning CAC Men's Tennis Player of the Week,
Justin Cerny, played a pivotal role in the comeback win, clinching the match with a win at No. 2 singles. Rookie
Dominic Lacombe was the other Captain still on the court when the match score turned to 4-3 in favor of Oberlin, forcing the final two CNU players into must-win situations. Both locked in three-set battles, Lacombe picked up the match-tying win at No. 5 singles, cruising to a win in the third set. At No. 2, Cerny put together a stellar performance to down his Oberlin counterpart, outlasting him for a 7-5 win in the third set.
Cerny's opponent, freshman Stephen Grupposo, saved a break point to pull ahead 4-3, but then Cerny held serve to tie things up again. On Grupposo's next serve, he pulled within one game of clinching the match, but Cerny held, and then broke serve to take the lead, 6-5, after an unforced error on a backhand shot on game point. In what would prove to be the final game, Cerny won the first point before Grupposo answered with a forehand winner. Back-to-back errors by the Oberlin player set up Cerny for the win up 40-15, and the CNU junior would not be denied, winning on an ace to clinch the match.
Setting up the dramatic finish were wins from
David Reed at No. 1 and
Andy Mason at No. 4 in singles, and the No. 2 doubles tandem of
Michael Dodd and
Arttu Fiva. Reed had the most lopsided win of the day, winning 6-0, 6-2 over senior Ian Paik, while Mason also won convincingly for his first collegiate dual victory, downing Manickam Manickam in a 6-1, 6-2 final. The key doubles win came from Dodd and Fiva, 8-5, over Robert Gittings and Abraham Davis
WIth the win, CNU improves to 1-1 in the dual season, and will carry that record into the spring season. Based on the final rankings from the ITA last spring, the Captains were facing the 40th-ranked team in the nation in Oberlin, after falling to the 7th-ranked Carnegie Mellon Tartans. The preseason rankings for 2016-17 will be released by the ITA later this fall.
In the morning matchup, CNU fell by a final score of 9-0 far from indicitive of how competitive the match was overall. In singles play, two matches went to three sets and in two more the Captains forced their counterpart to win in a seventh game in at least one of the sets. Every CNU player registered multiple game victories, but the home team pulled away for the win.
In doubles action, Cerny and Reed were up against Daniel Levine and Vayum Arora, an All-American tandem last season. Ranked 10th in the final doubles rankings of the season, Arora and Levine managed to just slip past the Captains' duo, 9-7, to sweep the doubles points. Dodd and
Nicholas Ruzicka paired up in No. 2 doubles, falling, 8-4, to Kenny Zheng and Michael Rozenvasser. Finally, at No. 3 doubles, Mason and
William Trang suffered an 8-2 setback to Mark Prettyman and Nicholas Calzolano.
In singles, Cerny won the first set, 6-2, before Levine answered to win the match 2-6, 6-2, (3), and Trang also stretched Prettyman to three sets, 6-7, 6-1, (9). Ruzicka and lacombe each had 7-5 set losses in their matches.
The Captains conclude the fall season with the two matches, and will return to action in February with the start of the full spring slate. The schedule will kick off on February 18 at Swarthmore College.
