By John Geilfuss
The men and women’s tennis teams went into the CAA tournament with high hopes, but both seasons ended with disappointing first round exits.
The men went into the tournament having won eight of nine matches, but was forced to challenge a tough Old Dominion team was third in the conference and No. 55 in the nation. ODU wasted no time putting the Pride, 4-0.
ODU got on the board after Adriano Mello and Niklas Orkasson defeated Robert Sforzo and Mario Hluch in third doubles 8-4. The Monarchs then secured the doubles point by Michael Bosch and Rodrigo Teixeira 8-2.
With victories in second and third doubles, the Monarchs earned the doubles point and the match-up at first doubles was suspended due to the tournament officials who wanted to move the match rapidly.
In singles play, the Monarchs took advantage of the Pride’s weaker play with another 4-0 victory. At sixth singles, Orkasson defeated Hluch 6-0 in consecutive sets to bring ODU’s lead to 2-0. Henrique Cancado followed up Orkasson’s play by also topping Sforzo in straight sets.
The loss at fifth singles put the Pride in a 3-0 hole and meant that it would have to win all the rest of the singles matches to advance to the semifinals.
Moments after Sforzo fell at fifth singles; ODU’s Calin Milos defeated Bosch in consecutive sets, 6-1, 6-2.
The early 4-0 defeat ended the match and an intriguing match-up between ODU’s No. 18 Izak van der Merwe and the Pride’s top player Nikola Djordjevic. This was a disappointing outcome for Djordjevic, who was hoping to establish himself as one of the premier players in college tennis by upsetting ODU’s top player.
The loss ended the Pride’s season at a respectable 11-6; a great sign of better things to come. “Over all, we had a good season and feel proud of ourselves. It was hard to lose but we tried our best,” Bosch said.
The No. 9 seeded women fell victim to the No. 8 seeded Towson Tigers.
Towson earned the lead right out of the gates with victories in second and third doubles. The pair of Morgan Sugger-Butter and Jess Woolfolk topped the Pride’s Jillian Schalk and Mayo Hosoda 8-5.
The Tigers secured the doubles point when the duo of Audrey Damrongsi and Kelly Parsons topped Adriana Segura and Jill Spiritus. Spiritus was a formermember of the Towson team before transferring to the Pride for the spring season.
With the 1-0 lead in tact, Towson did not fool around and quickly eliminated the Pride’s hopes of advancing by quickly winning at the top three matches. Pamela Zegger was the first to win in singles play at second as she topped Vera Malezhik 6-3 and 6-2.
At first singles, the Pride’s Erika Reggiani won the first set 6-2 but then was forced to retire midway through the second set, putting the Pride’s season on the line. Woofolk soon ended any hope of a comeback by defeating Hosoda 6-3 and 6-2 in straight sets and ending the match with a 4-0 victory for the Tigers.
The loss dropped the Pride to 3-12 on the season, with no wins in conference play.