ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL – The University of Rochester men's tennis team showed it could hang in singles with some of the best in the country, but ultimately fell by a 5-0 score to the University of Chicago on Friday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the University Athletic Association Championships.
 
Chicago (16-1) entered the match ranked #2 in Division III and had a number of nationally and regionally ranked players in both singles and doubles.  The loss drops Rochester to 12-6 on the season, with UR hanging on in the latest Division III poll, at #37.
 
Senior Masaru Fujimaki nearly pulled an upset at #1 singles, leading Erik Kerrigan 6-0, 4-1 when the match was clinched by the Maroons.  Fujimaki is ranked #11 in the most recent Northeast regional rankings, while Kerrigan is the highest Chicago player in the Central region, sitting at #6.
 
Junior Yifan Shen also played an impressive first set at #2 singles against Jeremy Yuan, the #16 nationally ranked player and #8 in the central.  Shen won the opening set 6-1, before Yuan responded with a 6-2 win in set two, with the third set not getting played out to the finish.
 
Chicago was strong in doubles, sweeping all three matches by 8-3, 8-2 and 8-1 scores.  Ninan Kumar and Kerrigan defeated Fujimaki and Shen at #1.  Charlie Pei and Joshua Xu won over Sahaj Somani and Pasquale Procaccino at #2, with Runjia Fang and Peter Huang falling to Yuan and Tyler Raclin at #3.  All three UC doubles teams are currently ranked in the top-25 of Division III.
 
The Maroons then earned two wins in straight sets to clinch the match 5-0.  Xu defeated Tanmay Thakkar 6-1, 6-2 at #4, followed by Pei defeating Fang 6-3, 6-2 for the clinching point.
 
Other matches in progress when the deciding point was won included Mark Zolotukhin trailing Alejandro Rodriguez 6-0, 4-3 at #5 and Somani behind of Alex Guzhva 6-3, 2-4 at #6 singles.
 
Rochester plays 5th-seeded Case Western Reserve University in the consolation round on Saturday afternoon.  Chicago meets Brandeis in the UAA semis.