The Emory University men’s and women’s tennis teams competed in four home matches from March 24 to 26 at the Woodruff Physical Education Center (WoodPEC). Both teams went undefeated. The men’s team beat the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the women earned three big wins against North Carolina Wesleyan University, DePauw University (Ind.) and Sewanee: The University of the South (Tenn.).
Men narrowly overcome MIT
The men’s team fought their way to victory against the No. 31 MIT Engineers on March 26. Coming into the match, Emory was ranked No. 8. Junior Ryan Glanville said the team felt “confident” that the matchup would be a swift victory.
“We’ve had a pretty good season so far, and so we felt like obviously we should beat them pretty handily,” Glanville said. “[It] ended up being a much tighter match than it probably should have been.”
Glanville and graduate student Charlie James kicked off the doubles contest with an 8-6 win over MIT’s Wayne Nelms and Derek Shen. James attributed their doubles victory to their strong serving and ability to understand each other on the court.
“If we’re serving well, we know that we’re pretty tough to beat just because we’re trying to create so much pressure … they feel a lot of pressure,” James said. “But I think the main thing is just we have a lot of trust in each other.”
Senior Andrew Esses and freshman John Lasanajak defeated MIT’s Sundeep Chakladar and Daniel Papacica (8-1). MIT prevented an Emory sweep in the last match of doubles competition when Kailas Kahler and Nicholas Liu beat senior Samuel Dean and freshman Dean Kamenev 8-7 (7-4).
Although the Eagles performed well in the doubles matches, the singles matchups were closer contests. MIT’s Benji Grossman defeated freshman Eshaan Dani in two sets (6-2, 6-2), and MIT’s Ryan Xiao defeated Glanville (6-2, 6-2).
The Eagles found their rhythm in the next two matches. Despite losing the first set 6-3, sophomore Emilio Van Cotthem went on to dominate the next two (6-1, 6-1). James continued to ride the hot hand for the Eagles, defeating Papacica (6-2, 6-1). Although Kamenev lost his singles match to Shen in three sets (6-3, 2-6, 5-7), Esses had the ability to win the match for the Eagles with the overall team score tied at 4-4.
Esses played a three set thriller against Kahler, scoring the final point to give the Eagles the win. He said losing the first set was “a tactic” to build motivation needed to win the matchup.
“It’s very mental, getting upset against someone that’s better than you,” Esses said. “Honestly I did once I gave him the first set. [I knew] that I was going to win the match. He got out there. I got out to a good start in the second set. Then, my third set record … that’s probably one of the best parts about my tennis [game].”
James said that he has set larger goals for the rest of the season leading up to the University Athletic Association (UAA) tournament in April.
“We’re just going to continue to work,” James said. “Our next big tournament is the UAAs and this is going to be a good benchmark for us to see where we are in terms of our tennis and, physically and mentally, if we’re able to compete with the best teams in the country.”
The men’s team will compete next at home against Georgia Gwinnett College on April 2 at 4 p.m.
Women earn statement win on senior day
The No. 9 women’s team faced North Carolina Wesleyan on March 24. Junior Ana Cristina Perez and freshman Emily Kantrovitz earned the first point for the Eagles after winning their doubles match 8-3. The team won two more doubles matches and carried their momentum into singles. Senior Stephanie Shulman and Perez earned commanding victories in their singles matches, and freshman Alyssa Margolin went undefeated in straight sets (6-0, 6-0).
The women’s team also celebrated senior day on March 25 during their match against DePauw University. Shulman said the celebration did not distract the team from their goal to win.
“We just wanted to go out there and compete alongside our teammates, and be able to walk away knowing that we did all that we could and we were able to do that day,” Shulman said.
The Eagles dominated both the doubles and singles matches against DePauw University. Perez and Kantrovitz won their doubles match 8-4, freshman Izzy Antanavicius and senior Alexa Goetz won 8-6 and freshman Iris Berman and sophomore Eliza McPherron won 8-0.
In the singles, Shulman found her groove with a win (6-1, 6-0). Additional wins from Kantrovitz, McPherron, Berman and Antanavicius put six straight points on the board for the Eagles.
Berman said that she and the team used the early wins as fuel for the rest of the weekend.
“Sometimes you feel like [the] energy will fall but I think we really picked up the energy and you feed off that,” Berman said. “I think that especially towards the last matches, I really fed off that energy, and I felt, really getting confident out there.”
Emory faced the No. 10 Sewanee Tigers on March 26. Though they were only ranked one spot behind the Eagles, the Tigers were unable to score a single point. This match propelled the Eagles to a 9-0 record in all three matches this weekend.
Kantrovitz and Perez started off the day strong with an 8-4 win in their doubles match, followed by a flurry of doubles wins from Goetz and Antanavicius (8-3) and McPherron and Berman (8-5).
The Eagles went 6-0 in the singles matches against Sewanee. Berman won her match (6-4, 2-6, 10-6). Shulman’s win in a close match (7-5, 7-5) gave the Eagles an additional edge over the Tigers. McPherron also came out on top with a commanding singles win (6-0, 6-2).
Shulman said the three wins were a good confidence booster for the rest of the season.
“It’s not that common that you see like three 9-0 wins in a row,” Shulman said. “That's 27 total matches that we didn’t lose … It’s a good step forward as we continue on towards the postseason.”
Following the three straight wins, the women’s team has a 7-3 overall record. The team will travel to face Tufts University (Mass.) on March 31 at 12 p.m.
