ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL – The 7th-seeded University of Rochester men's tennis team fell to the 6th-seeded New York University Violets, 5-3, in the semifinal round of the 2024 UAA Tennis Championships Consolation Bracket on Friday afternoon at Sanlando Park.
 
The Yellowjackets would lead early, taking two of the three doubles matches against the Violets. Kavin Shukla and David Riccio gave UR its first point of the day with an 8-3 win over Cooper Smith and Zachary Freier at No. 3 doubles, 8-3, scoring the first four points of the match to build a lead they'd never relinquish.
 
At No. 2 doubles, Kei Ogawa and Krish Vennam fell behind early and ultimately lost to NYU's Jingyuan Chen and Louis Frowein, 8-3, before Kai Yuminaga and Ethan Samora pulled out the last doubles match to give Rochester a 2-1 lead.
 
Samora and Yuminaga trailed the Violets' Boren Zheng and Alexander Lee early at No. 1 doubles, but battled back, knotting the match at 4-4 and again at 5-5 before taking the one spot, 8-6, to give UR the advantage heading into singles play.
 
However, the Violets would take the first three singles matches to surge ahead, 4-2, picking up wins at third, fourth and fifth singles.
 
Smith knotted the score at two-all with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Samora at No. 5 singles, before Rumaish Khastgir gave the Violets their first lead of the afternoon with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Ogawa in the fourth singles match.
 
At No. 3 singles, Frowein topped Shukla, 6-3, 6-3, to give the Violets a two-point lead, before Vennam got the Yellowjackets back on the scoreboard. Vennam, battling Chen at No. 2 singles, took a tightly-contested opening set, 7-5, before ripping off three-straight points in the second set en route to a 6-1 set victory and a 2-0 win.
 
Vennam's win at No. 2 singles, brought UR back within a point, with the final two singles matches heading to a third set. After Ryan Shayani took the opening set, 6-1, at No. 6 singles, Riccio battled back to take the second, 7-5, and kept things close into the third.
 
However, the Violets would clinch things at No. 1 singles, where Zheng bounced back from an opening-set defeat to take the match in three over Yuminaga. Yuminaga dealt the first blow with a 6-4 win in the first set, but Zheng battled back to level things with a 6-3 win in set two before taking set three, 6-2, to clinch the match for NYU.
 
Rochester falls to 9-6 with the loss, while the Violets move to 4-9 with the win.
 
UR will wrap up the 2024 UAA Men's Tennis Championships on Sunday with the seventh-place match against Brandeis at Sanlando Park at 8:30 a.m.