On February 18 and 19, Men’s Tennis competed in the Mary Washington Invitational to kick off their spring season.
In the MAC Freedom preseason coaches poll released in late January, Stevens’ Men’s Tennis was named the league’s preseason favorite. As the two-time defending conference champions, Stevens received first-place votes from all seven of the opposing head coaches.
On Saturday, the Ducks went up against Washington College of Maryland and won at a margin of 6-3. Junior Aashi Kulakarn and first-year Max-William Kanz each won twice to lead the team. Junior Andrew He and sophomores Olof Persson, Sebastian Wroe and Vivek Harinarayan won once throughout the match.
The Ducks opened the day by winning two of the three doubles matches. Kanz and Wroe had an 8-4 win to secure the team’s first point of the season. The second win also came at a margin of 8-4, this time being won by Kulakarni and Harinarayan to claim the advantage heading into singles matches.
In the first singles, Washington College evened the match at 2-2 with a straight-set victory. The teams were even again at 3-3 after splitting the fourth and fifth singles, where Kanz earned his second win of the day with a 6-2, 6-4 win.
The Ducks then had consecutive three-set victories at second, third, and sixth singles, crowning them winners of the match. Kulakarni, Persson, and He all won their matches in the second, third, and sixth singles, respectively. This victory moved the team to 1-0 on the season.
In light of his team’s performance, head coach Steve Gachko said, “Everyone stepped up and contributed to a big team win to kick off our season on the road.” Gachko also added that the team was “all ready and excited to face a very tough Mary Washington team.”
On Sunday, the Ducks faced No. 18 University of Mary Washington, and lost at a margin of 7-2. Wroe had a notable performance on the day, with a straight-set victory at sixth singles. Kulakarni and Harinarayan also had an 8-7 victory at second doubles, which was the Ducks only doubles win. In the singles, Mary Washington won five of the six matches. Wroe secured Stevens’ only win in singles play in a 7-5, 6-0 victory. The Ducks’ loss against Mary Washington moved them to 1-1 on the season.
Gachko stated that although the team did not have the ideal outcome against “a gritty Mary Washington squad,” he noted how “Sebastian Wroe stepped up to fill in at No. 6 singles and came up with a decisive win. Aashi and Vivek continued their strong doubles play and never let their opponents get into the match all weekend.” Finally, he stated that the athletes “grew a lot as a team this weekend and [he is] proud of the effort we had.”
The next Men’s Tennis match will be against No. 29 Haverford College at the Edgewater Tennis Club on February 25.
