ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL – University of Rochester men's tennis dropped a hard-fought seventh-place match to the Brandeis University Judges to wrap up the 2024 University Athletic Association (UAA) Tennis Championships on Saturday morning at Sanlando Park.
UR (9-7), the No. 7 seed, fell to the Judges (2-15), the 8th seed, by the final score of 5-4. The match came down to the last remaining singles match, with the Judges eking out the one-point victory.
Brandeis jumped out to an early lead after doubles play, taking two of the three opening matches. At No. 1 doubles, Pierce Garbett and Dylan Walters defeated
Kai Yuminaga and
Ethan Samora, 8-6, while Harrison Huai and Huasen Dong topped
Kavin Shukla and
David Riccio at No. 2 doubles, 8-5.
Both doubles matches were relatively close, with UR's doubles pairs battling back late but falling just short against the Judges.
UR would pick up a win at No. 3 doubles by default though, with the Judges having just five players on their roster, and then would add another default win to open singles play at No. 6 singles, leveling the score at 2-all with five singles matches getting started.
The Judges surged ahead, taking the next two singles matches, picking up points at No. 1, and 5 singles to go ahead 4-2. Dylan Waters, the 13th-ranked singles player in Division III, dispatched Yuminaga at the one spot, 6-3, 6-1, while Huai topped
David Riccio, 6-4, 6-3.
But Rochester would battle back, first at No. 2 singles, where
Krish Vennam scored the 'Jackets' second singles win, pulling the Yellowjackets within a point with his 6-4, 6-4 win over Garbett. And then at the four spot,
Kei Ogawa earned a 6-3, 6-4 win over Basye, setting up a winner-take-all final at No. 3 singles.
Dong fired the opening salvo against Shukla, winning the first at No. 3 singles, 7-5, but Shukla battled back to knot the match up at 1-1 with a 7-5 victory in set two. But with the match on the line, Dong pulled away early in the third, clinching the seventh-place match for the Judges, 5-4, with a 6-2 win in the third set against Shukla.