Yale Athletics

The Yale men’s and women’s tennis teams each hosted two opponents this past weekend at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center. The men’s team took on Penn State and Buffalo on Saturday, while the women’s team hosted Boston University on Saturday and Penn State on Sunday. Both teams ended the weekend with strong, undefeated records. 

To start the weekend, the men’s team made a statement by sweeping Penn State, winning 7–0. In doubles, Vignesh Gogineni ’26 and Edward Liao ’28 teamed up to defeat Charl Morgan and David Lindsay 6–3. Renaud Lefevre ’25 and Krish Gupta ’28 easily took care of business against Sam Bossem and Loren Byers, winning 6–1. Jim Ji ’27 and Jason Shuler ’28 closed out the doubles portion of the match by taking down Reiya Hattori and Marcus Schoeman 6–2. 

In singles, the Bulldogs were again perfect, winning all six matches. Gogineni narrowly got past Byers, winning  3–6, 7–5, 10–8 in a nail-biting final set. Ji defeated Morgan handily, winning 6–4, 6–2. Li battled back to grab a win over Bossem, 3–6, 6–4, 12–10. Shuler got past Schoeman for the second time that day, winning 6–3, 6–4. Liao defeated Hattori 6–3, 6–2, and Gupta rounded out the scoring, winning 6–2, 6–1 over Lindsay. 

Later that day, Yale faced slightly stronger competition as they took on Buffalo. They dropped the doubles point, as only the duo of Gogineni and Liao were able to come out on top, beating Daniils Sanders and Cheng Tang 6–2. 

Yet in singles, the Bulldogs were able to capitalize on a hot streak, racking up four individual wins along with the team victory. Again, leading the way was Gogineni, defeating Theodoris Mitsakos 6–4, 6–4 as part of his 4-0 day. Ji and Li both dropped their matches, but were avenged by Shuler, Liao and Gupta racking up three consecutive victories to win the overall team competition. Shuler beat Michael Malkin 6–4, 6–2, Liao won over Yu-Shiang Huang 6–2, 6–1 and Gupta closed it out by beating Faiz Nasyam 6–4, 6–3. 

The Yale men’s tennis team is back in action on Feb. 14 and 15 in Philadelphia, where they will compete as a team at the ECAC Championships. 

On the women’s side, the Bulldogs started the weekend off by facing the Terriers of Boston University. Yale took two of three matches on the doubles side, winning them the doubles point. Shyla Aggarwal ’27 and Mirabelle Brettkelly ’25 took down Madison Liu and Blanka DeMicheli 7–6 (1), and Julia Werdiger ’28 and Angela Huang ’28 defeated Nina Gulbransen and Emily Zhao 6–3. 

In the singles portion, the Bulldogs also dominated, racking up five victories. Brettkelly dropped the first match against Uma Bakaityte, but Orly Ogilvy ’27 defeated Gabriella Mikaul 3–6, 6–4, 10–5. Werdiger followed that up by easily beating 6-4, 6–1. Erin Ha ’27 also came out on top against Liu, winning 6–4, 6–4. Rebecca Lynn ’26 and Huang closed out the day by winning their matches, 6–1, 6–3 and 6–0, 6–3, respectively. 

The following day, Yale built on their momentum, using their victory over Boston to take down the Nittany Lions of Penn State. In doubles, the Bulldogs were swept, but were able to bounce back with a tremendous singles showing. Ogilvy claimed the first Yale point of the day by winning 6–2, 7–6. Aggarwal followed her up by winning 6–3, 6–4. Werdiger had no trouble getting past her opponent, winning 6–3, 6–3. Ha held on to win 6–3, 7–5, and Huang rounded things out by cruising to a 6–1, 6–2 victory. 

The miraculous singles comeback ultimately won the match for the Bulldogs. 

The Yale women’s tennis team plays next at the ECAC Championships from Feb. 7-9, also in Philadelphia.

BRODY GILKISON