Senior Ian Wagner returns a serve. Wagner and the Eagles went to Hawaii and beat Brigham Young University-Hawaii, a Division II team. | Courtesy of Emory Athletics
The men’s tennis team traveled to Hawaii for spring break, ending their week in paradise with a 7-2 win against Division II Brigham Young University-Hawaii, bringing their record to 6-2 on the season.
Senior Alex Ruderman played first singles, losing in straight sets 6-2, 7-6. Senior Eric Halpern played second singles winning 7-6, 6-3.
Junior Rafe Mosetick played third singles defeating his opponent 6-2, 7-5. The other three games of the singles competition went soundly for Emory.
The Eagles only dropped one set, from sophomore Josh Goodman, who then went on to win the next two 6-1, 6-1.
“They are a real tough team,” Ruderman said. “Our team really wanted to win and the rest of the team played great. I was frustrated after my match, I didn’t play well in the first set, and I had a lot of chances to tie it up in the second set.”
In the doubles competition, Ruderman partnered with senior Ian Wagner in the second set defeating the team of Brigham Young-Hawaii seniors Martin Chojnacki and Yevhen Zakharov 8-6 in a pro set. Eric Halpern and freshman Scott Rubinstein lost against sophomores Wei-Feng Lee and Peng Dai 3-8 in the second doubles position. Mosetick and freshman David Omsky played third doubles, defeating their opponents with a score of 8-6.
“I was happy with how we played,” Head Coach John Browning said. “It’s hard getting used to the time difference and lag at first, we got off to a real sluggish start in our first match because of that, but otherwise we played really well.”
While the team was focused on tennis, they were excited to spend spring break immersed in Hawaii’s culture.
“It was really fun to travel with the entire team,” Ruderman said. “We had the entire team, not just the usual traveling crew of 10 guys. Hawaii is amazing and the weather was perfect.”
Browning grew up in Hawaii and was excited to show the team some of his favorite local spots.
“We went to a beach that [Browning] knew about that was away from everything,” Ruderman said. “That was really cool. He tried to have us try some local food which had some pretty mixed reviews from the team.”
In the coming several weeks, the team is going to buckle down and train even harder to get ready for University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships starting April 24.
“April is a huge month for us,” Browning said. “We’re going to try to improve everything before we play at nationals.”
