ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL – Playing in the one of the toughest conferences in the country in Division III men's tennis is nothing new for the University of Rochester.
 
That fact was on display on Thursday as the Yellowjackets battled the #2 ranked and second seeded University of Chicago in the quarterfinals of the UAA Championships at Sanlando Park, falling by a 5-0 score.
 
The Maroons improve to 15-1 on the year with the win, with their only loss coming to the UAA's top seed and #1 nationally ranked school in Case Western Reserve. Rochester falls to .500, sitting at 7-7 on the season after the loss.
 
Chicago opened the match with three doubles victories, all by 8-3 scores or better, to jump ahead 3-0 on the scoreboard.
 
The #3 team of Sachin Das and Alex Guzhva defeated UR's Kenneth Lee and Adrian Zhang 8-2 for the opening point. At #2, Rochester's Paquale Procaccino and Krish Vennam had the most success, dropping an 8-3 match against Andrei Leonov and Pat Otero.
 
To complete the sweep, Chicago's top team of Christian Alshon and Derek Hsieh, ranked #25 nationally and #3 regionally earned an 8-1 win over Runjia Fang and Kai Yuminaga.
 
At the UAA Championships, matches are played to decision, rather than completion, resulting in the overall match finishing up when one team gets to five team points.
 
Chicago clinched the win with straight sets wins at #5 and #1 singles, leaving the remaining four matches on court. Marek Michulka topped Adrian Zhang 6-0, 6-0 at #5 and Fang fell at #1 6-1, 6-0 to Alshon allowing the Maroons to advance to Friday's semifinals.
 
In other singles action, Procaccino, playing #2, tallied a 6-2 win in the opening set against nationally ranked singles player in Hsieh before Hsieh took the second 6-1 prior to the match being halted.
 
UR's other three singles players, Vennam (#3), Yuminaga (#4) and Kei Ogawa (#6) were all down a set at the time Chicago earned the clinching point.
 
Rochester takes on #14 ranked Brandeis tomorrow afternoon at 12:30 in the consolation round matchup.