Senior Dan Barbash took the No. 5 singles win, 6-3, 6-0, and had a hand in the 8-1 victory at No. 3 doubles. Campus Times Archives.
For the first part of the men’s tennis team’s match against St. Lawrence University on Sunday, April 3, the Yellowjackets and Saints appeared equally-matched. The yellow and blue had taken four of six singles matches, but the Saints claimed wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions, as freshman Boris Borovcanin and junior Brian Rice failed to pull out wins for UR in the top spots.
A number of the Yellowjackets’ singles wins were also closely contested. It took senior Jeff Zink 12 games to claim the first set over St. Lawrence’s Ren Gates — a matchup Zink ended up winning 7-5, 6-1. The Saints refused to be silenced at No. 4 and No. 6 singles as well, as juniors Brian Rice and Matt Volkov surrendered games in both sets of their respective matches, Rice winning 6-2, 6-3 and Volkov taking the point with a 6-2, 6-4 victory. Senior Dan Barbash was the lone member to sweep a set, ousting his opponent, 6-3, 6-0.
With all this in consideration, it was clear that the 4-2 score after singles play by no means guaranteed the yellow and blue victory. The match was still very much up for grabs — that is, until doubles play rolled around.
The No. 1 doubles team of Borovcanin and Rice, disappointed with their individual losses but by no means out of competitive fire, rebounded in style by outplaying the very same players who had beaten them only earlier that day. The pair won 8-3. The Saints’ three points in the match was the most any St. Lawrence doubles team would manage that day, as the Yellowjackets doubles teams combined to top the Saints by a total of 24-6.
Volkov and Zink didn’t appear to need to work as hard at doubles as they had at singles when they pooled their talents, putting away a pair of Saints by an 8-2 margin. Barbash and freshman John Lewis Etter dispatched their opponents with the greatest ease, surrendering only one game in an 8-1 victory.
“This was the best tennis this team has played all season, and it was all about the doubles,” Barbash said. “Against a good regionally ranked team like St. Lawrence, it is tough to sweep doubles, but that’s exactly what we were able to do.”
With the 7-2 win — the team’s 10th of the season — the ‘Jackets improve to 10-6.
Letting only one match slip away at No. 1 doubles enroute to an 8-1 thrashing of the Saints, the women won their fourth match in a row with ease while upping their record to 11-3 this season.
Unlike the men, however, singles was the name of the game for the women, as the yellow and blue swept the one-on-one matches. At No. 1 singles, senior Lia Weiner received a rare amount of competition from St. Lawrence’s Stephanie Finn — a state quarterfinalist in the fall — but still claimed the win in straight sets with scores of 6-3, 6-3. Sophomore Frances Tseng, UR’s No. 2 player, added another point with a 6-3, 6-4 victory, while Alexandra Goodman — one of four double winners on the day for Rochester — posted a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 3 singles.
‘Jackets in the No. 4 through No. 6 positions pounded down the Saints, combining to outscore the opposition, 36-8. Junior Jamie Bow dropped just one game in a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 4 singles. Junior Danielle Shreck defeated her St. Lawrence rival, 6-1, 6-3, and freshman Janice Zhao wrapped things up in singles with a 6-0, 6-3 decision.
In doubles action, Shreck and Goodman overwhelmed a pair of Saints, 8-1, while Bow and Zhao combined to snatch the win at No. 3 doubles, 8-4.
Bernstein is a member of the class of 2014.
