The men’s tennis team ended their fall season with a strong showing at the 2010 Connecticut State Championship. Jordan Abergel ’11 fell one step short of claiming the singles title in a three-set loss, after edging out teammate Joel Samaha ’12 in the semifinal.
Abergel lost to Sacred Heart’s Kirill Kasyanov 4–6, 6–2, 10–1 on Sunday. Kasyanov is the reigning Northeast Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Year.
“Jordan has been playing well all fall,” head coach Alex Dorato said.
The all-Yale semifinal match between Abergel and Samaha ended when Samaha was forced to retire due to what Dorato said he thought might be an elbow injury during the second set, with the score 2–6, 5–4. The two Bulldogs reached the semifinal match by winning three straight matches after first-round byes.
Dorato said that the specifics of Samaha’s injury are unclear and he was unable to grip his racket during Sunday’s match.
The doubles teams rebounded over the weekend after a disappointing performance at the ITA Northeast Regional Championships two weeks ago.
The duo of Samaha and Patrick Chase ’14 lost in the semifinals to eventual champions Joe Michalisin and Erik Kremheller of Fairfield University 2–8.
On the other half of the bracket, Abergel and Erik Blumenkranz ’12 fell in a closely contested match against Quinnipiac’s Brian Mikkelson and Andrew Weeden 7–9.
Dorato said he believes that the doubles teams still have room to improve.
“I hoped one of the doubles would make it to the finals,” he said. “I’m disappointed we didn’t do better and I think we could’ve. We will focus on doubles and improving our doubles skills for the next couple of weeks.”
In other doubles play, Zachary Dean ’13 and Tommy Ratchford ’14 lost in the quarterfinals 5–8 to Mikkelson and Weeden. Ryan Berman ’11 and Kyle Dawson ’14 were defeated by University of Connecticut’s freshmen Teddy Marguels and Ryan Carr 5–8 in the Round of 16.
Blumenkranz, Dawson and Dean also reached the Round of 16 in singles play. Berman faced off against Samaha in a back-and-forth match during quarterfinals, eventually losing 6–0, 4–6, 3–10.
The strong performance by the team’s freshmen over the fall season also impressed Dorato.
“The freshmen are very talented and I think they will get a lot better,” Dorato said. “They are a very talented class and I’m excited for them.”
The team will now head into a three-month break before kicking off the spring season and the chase for the Ivy League title on Jan. 29 at home against Boston College.