The No. 7 ranked Emory men's tennis team continued competition at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships at the Wilkinson Tennis Complex in St. Peter, Minnesota on Saturday evening. After dropping their opening round match on Friday, the Eagles took on the No. 16 ranked Gustavus Adolphus Gusties on their home courts in a consolation match. After dropping the doubles point, the Eagles rallied to win five of the six singles matches to earn a 5-2 win over the Gusties.
The Eagles got things started on the right foot, with freshman
Ruilin Feng and sophomore
Christian Liew teaming up on court two for a win. The two fell behind, 4-3, to Gustavus Adolphus' Marco Siviero and Josh Christensen, but rattled off three consecutive games to win the set, 6-3.
Yet, the Gusties rallied back to win the following two matches and win the lone doubles point. Both matches went to a tiebreaker, with the Eagles being on the wrong side of both. The duo of junior
Dean Kamenev and freshman
Ajay Kartik fell on court one, 6(4)-7(7). Meanwhile, graduate students
Charley Force and
Efe Comu fell on court three, also at 6(4)-7(7), as the Gusties seized the match's doubles point to take a 1-0 lead.
Entering the singles portion of the evening, the Eagles needed to take four of six matches to rally for a win against the Gusties.
Emory rattled off a pair of quick wins to retake the lead at, 2-1, as Liew and Feng both won their matches in convincing fashion. Liew won his match on court three in straight sets (6-0, 6-1), while Feng dominated on court two with a line of 6-0, 6-3 to win in straight sets.
Kamenev took on Gustavus Adolphus' Dominik Knutson on court four, looking to extend the lead over the Gusties. Knutson had other plans, though, as he took down Kamenev in straight sets (6-3, 6-2). Yet, Comu was able to get one back for the Eagles, as he took down Siviero on court one in straight sets (6-2, 6-3) to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead with two singles matches left to play.
Needing one more win, it was Force on court five to earn the match clinching point. Force took the opening set, 6-2, before falling in the second set, 2-6. Needing one more set win to take the match against the Gusties, Force took the third and deciding set, 6-3, to win the match for Emory.
After the Eagles had secured a win, senior
John Lasanajak won his match in three sets (6-2, 5-7, 6-4). Lasanajak's match sealing point was a stellar one, returning with a backhand along the sideline to leave his opponent with no chance at a return and put an end to the match.
Emory will play in the fifth-place match tomorrow against the sixth-seeded Swarthmore Garnet, who were ranked No. 9 in the most recent ITA team rankings. The match against Swarthmore will start at 11:30 AM on Sunday.
