The Yale men’s tennis team swept the competition in its first weekend of official match play at home, defeating three teams in two days.
The Bulldogs (3-0, Ivy 0-0) hosted three local rivals in their start of the season at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center this weekend: Quinnipiac (1-1, 0-0 Northeast), Fairfield (2-1, 1-0 MAAC) and Sacred Heart (1-2, 1-0 Northeast). Yale only dropped one match out of 23 the entire weekend. For the second consecutive season, Yale went undefeated in its first weekend of official play.
“We really wanted to come out and start the season out on a positive note and get three wins,” John Huang ’13 said. “We all knew these teams were not at the same level as us. We wanted to make a statement and have three convincing wins, which we were able to pull off.”
In Saturday’s season opener, Yale took out Quinnipiac 7–0 without dropping a single set. The Bulldogs set a solid foundation in singles, with Marc Powers ’13 and Patrick Chase ’14 both winning 6-0 at the No. 1 and No. 6 spots, respectively.
The doubles round went just as well for the Bulldogs. Powers and Chase teamed up and won at the first spot 8–3. Zach Dean ’13 and Matt Saiontz ’15 followed at the No. 2 spot with an 8–2 win. Daniel Faierman ’15 paired with Jason Brown ’16 and rounded out the doubles streak with an 8–4 win at the No. 3 spot.
“We had excellent preparation heading into our opener,” Faierman said. “I felt completely confident in our team’s ability. I think this is one of the fittest teams we have had in a long time.”
The next day, the Elis had a quick turn-around in a doubleheader against Fairfield and Sacred Heart. Against Fairfield, the Bulldogs started out with five wins on the doubles side, with the No. 19 nationally ranked pair of team captain Daniel Hoffman ’13 and Powers winning 8–2 in the No. 1 spot. The decision ended 9–0 in favor of Yale.
In the second match of the day Yale dominated Sacred Heart 6–1. The one loss for the Bulldogs came at the No. 6 spot, where Chase dropped the match 6–2, 7–6 against Sacred Heart’s Matt Dean.
Chase went on to redeem himself at the No. 1 doubles position with teammate Huang, where they won 8–4. Zach Krumholz ’15 won 6–2, 6–2 at the No. 3 singles position.
“Our team played exceptionally well this weekend,” Krumholz said. “Our toughest opponents coming up will be the other Ivy League teams. That’s what we train for all year, and they will definitely be the toughest opponents that we face.”
Yale will resume competition in two weeks time when they go on the road to Tennessee to compete against the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Middle Tennessee State University.