Six Different Players Contribute to 5-2 Victory
BLACKSBURG, Va. – In its first match of the regular season, the Yale men's tennis team cruised past Davidson by a 5-2 margin. Playing Saturday morning at Virginia Tech's Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center, the Bulldogs showed the depth of their roster, as seniors and freshmen alike recorded triumphs that contributed to the team's positive start to the new season.
Fittingly, team captain Kyle Dawson and fellow senior Patrick Chase were the ones to get No. 59 Yale (1-0, 0-0 Ivy) off to a flying start, as they paired together at the No. 2 doubles position and breezed past the Davidson duo of Robert Lightbourn and Evan Watkins, 6-1. The younger, but none less talented Eli tandem of freshman Tyler Lu and sophomore Martin Svenning then clinched the doubles point for Yale with a tight 6-4 victory over the Wildcat team of Ethan Kallick and Zach Zapatero.
Armed with the advantage, Yale proceeded to maintain its high level of play in singles and raced to overall victory with three straightforward wins. At the No. 1 spot, Lu picked up where he left off at the Connecticut State Championships, maintaining his winning ways with a 6-4, 6-0 dismissal of Lightbourn. Svenning, playing at the No. 2 position, began his spring singles campaign by defeating Kallick for the loss of just one game. Finally, freshman Alex Hagermoser, who also enjoyed a successful fall season, produced his top form in a 6-3, 6-1 win over Davidson's Jordan Hart. A third freshman, Photos Photiades, meanwhile, was unfazed after his opponent took the second set of his match in a tiebreaker, and finished strong to record a three-set triumph and Yale's fifth point of the day.
Davidson (0-1) will next play No. 38 Virginia Tech on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center. Earlier in the day, at 10:00 a.m., Yale will challenge the Hokies. Yale's No.1 player, Lu, will face a stern test against Amerigo Contini, the No. 26 player in the country. Virginia Tech's roster also features the No. 23 doubles team in the nation, consisting of Contini and Andreas Bjerrehus.
Report by Robert Batista '15, Yale Sports Publicity
