ITHACA, NY – Despite dropping all three doubles matches and two of the first three singles matches, the University of Rochester men's tennis team stormed back, winning each of the final three singles matches to pull off a 4-3 comeback victory over the Ithaca College Bombers on Saturday inside Glazer Arena.
The Bombers struck first and secured the doubles point, topping the Yellowjackets in all three doubles matches. At No. 3 doubles, Luis Crespo and Ean Lantzy swept
Ethan Samora and
Liam Rieger, 6-0, while Siddharth Desai and Gijs Fidler clinched the doubles point with a 7-6 (7-2) win over
Kavin Shukla and
Alan Wang at No. 1 doubles.
At No. 2 doubles, Ivan Kisic and Siddharth Vaada picked up another win for the Bombers, defeating
Josh Chu and
Rahul Ravi, 7-6 (7-2).
Rochester then picked up its first point of the match, as Shukla earned a quick singles win at four singles, defeating Crespo, 6-2, 6-1, to knot the matchup at one.
However, Ithaca would earn the next two singles points, as Fidler topped
Krish Vennam at No. 1 singles, 7-6 (12-10), 6-4, and Vaada eked out a win over
Rahul Ravi at No. 3 singles, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, to go up 3-1 over the Yellowjackets and set up match point.
But UR would mount a comeback and win each of the three remaining singles matches to tie the score at three-all, before taking the winner-take-all clincher at No. 6 singles.
At No. 2 singles,
Alan Wang needed a third set, but pulled out a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Kisic to pull the Yellowjackets within one, before
Andy Liu made quick work of Desai at No. 5 singles, 6-4, 6-0, to knot the match up at 3-3.
Things came down to the final singles match of the day, six singles, where
Josh Chu faced off with Lantzy, and the UR sophomore got the better of the Ithaca junior: 6-4, 6-3, to finish off the come-from-behind victory for the Yellowjackets.
With the win, Rochester moves to 3-2 on the season, while Ithaca falls to 1-1.
UR wraps up its weekend road trip with another regional matchup against St. Lawrence University on Sunday, Feb 23 in Canton, NY at 2:00 p.m.