Box Score

LATHAM, NY – The University of Rochester men's tennis team dropped its second straight marathon match in as many days falling 5-4 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Sunday afternoon at Tri-City Fitness.
 
On Saturday, UR (3-4) fell by a 5-4 score to Vassar College, in another thrilling match that went down to the final singles match.  Sunday's tilt versus RPI was more of the same as the overall match was 4-4 with only the #5 singles match going on.
 
That match featured UR's Sahaj Somani and RPI's Suryansh Patel.  Like Saturday's final match, this contest went the full three sets, with Patel taking the opening set 6-2.  Somani responded with a 6-2 win of his own.  In the third, the pair were evened up at 4-4 before Patel took the final two games to win 6-4, earning the 5-4 overall match win.
 
After doubles, the host Engineers (2-0) held a 2-1 advantage.  To start, Rochester's all-freshman pair of Somani and Tanmay Thakkar won 8-5 over RPI's Sundar Deva Kottai and Stephen Baxter.  RPI then took the final two matches of doubles play to head to single up 2-1 overall.  Sebastian Castillo-Sanchez and Zack Ebenfeld were 8-6 winners over UR's Aaron Mevorach and Masaru Fujimaki and that followed by a 9-7 win from Winston Yu and Xavier Oshinowo over Rochester's Andrew Nunno and Sam Leeman.
 
Through three matches in singles, the overall match was squared up at 3-3.  Thakkar posted a convincing win at #6 singles, winning 6-2, 6-2 over Baxter while Nunno would fall 6-3, 6-3 at #2 to Oshinowo.  Mevorach then was a 7-6 (7), 6-1 winner at #4 over Yu to square the match.
 
RPI then edged ahead with Castillo-Sanchez's win at #1 over Fujimaki (6-4, 6-2), but Leeman won in three sets at #3 over Ebenfeld 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to pull the Yellowjackets back even on the scoreboard.  That would ultimately set up the winner-take-all match at #5.
 
UR's next match is slated for next Saturday, March 4th at home versus Union College at 2 pm in the Goergen Athletic Center.