ORLANDO, FL – The two bookend matches of the University of Rochester's men's tennis spring break trip were the highlights as Rochester defeated Division II Augustana University of South Dakota 5-4 on Thursday morning at the USTA National Campus.
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UR (5-8) opened its Florida trip with a 6-3 win over NAIA school Georgetown College, lost two matches on Tuesday and Wednesday, but closed its four-game trip with a win over the Vikings (3-4).
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Matt Resnikoff earned the match clinching point, breaking a 4-4 tie winning over North Knewtson in a three-set thriller. Resnikoff opened with a 7-6 (2) win, saw his opponent answer with a 7-6 (3) win in the second. In the super tiebreaker third set, the UR first-year edged out Knewtson 10-6 to win the match for the Yellowjackets.
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Fujimaki's win at #1 kept UR alive in the match.
Overall, the entire match was a back-and-forth affair. Augustana opened the scoring with a match win at 1st doubles, with Charlie Adkins and Logan Barr winning 8-3 over Rochester's
Masaru Fujimaki and
Peter Huang.
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The Yellowjackets would respond by taking the next two doubles points and go up 2-1.Â
Jun Yuminaga and
Yifan Shen were 8-5 winners over Zachary Adkins and Knewtson at 2nd doubles. At #3, a tight 9-8 (8) decision went in favor of
Sahaj Somani and partner
Tanmay Thakkar over Joe Sawatzke and Austin VanDerWeide.
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Somani would then put Rochester up 3-1, taking the opening point in singles play at #5. He was a straight set winner over Sawatzke by a 6-3, 6-2 score.
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The Vikings rattled off three straight wins after that to surge ahead 4-3. Barr won 6-2, 6-4 at #3 over Thakkar, VanDerWeide was a three-set winner over Shen at #4 (3-6, 6-4, 10-5) while Zach Adkins rallied to defeat Yuminaga at #2 4-6, 6-0 and 14-12.
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With its back against the wall, Rochester picked up a huge win at #1 singles from Fujimaki over Charlie Adkins. The UR junior won 6-4, 6-4 to pull the overall score even, setting up Resnikoff's dramatic final point.
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The Yellowjackets will now head back up north and will next play in a home match on March 24th against Stevens Institute of Technology.
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