Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams faced losses over the weekend at two separate tournaments.
The women’s team traveled to Middlebury, VT, for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association New England Regional Tournament at Middlebury College, while the men’s team competed in the same tournament at Williams College in Williamstown, MA.
The men’s team put up a strong performance with Brian Granoff ’17 as Brandeis’ front runner. Granoff had the best performance by a Brandeis men’s player since 2012, reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament.
He was seeded eighth headed into the tournament and opened with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Colby College. He used that momentum for the second match of the tournament against Wheaton’s David Gassen in a quick 6-2, 6-0 victory. The two victories in the first day of the tournament promised Granoff a game the next day.
In the round of 16, Granoff faced off for the first time against another seeded player, Bowdoin’s Kyle Wolfe. Granoff beat Wolfe 7-5, 6-3 to win a spot in the final eight. Although Granoff put up an impressive effort in the tournament, he couldn’t beat his Wesleyan opponent in the quarter finals. Chen beat Granoff in a 6-3, 6-1 victory to move on to the semifinals.
Other singles matches included Brandeis’ Ryan Bunis ’17 defeating Bill Roddy of Bowdoin in a 6-2,6-2 victory in the first round of the tournament before having to withdraw from the competition. Tyler Ng ’19 dropped his opening match to a Bates player in a 6-2, 6-1 loss.
The Judges only had one pair in doubles action, who did not advance, as Granoff and Jeffrey Cherkin ’17 fell to the eighth-seeded pair from Williams, 8-2 in the first round of the tournament.
The women’s team had only one player advance past the first round. Karen Khromchenko ’19 dominated a Smith College opponent in a 6-0, 6-0 victory. However, Khromchenko couldn’t hold her momentum, falling to Catherine Miller of Williams in the second round of the tournament.
In other singles action, Haley Cohen ’18 won her first set 6-2 but couldn’t beat her opponent from Amherst in a tiebreaker, falling 6-7, 4-10 in the super tiebreaker third set. Olivia Leavitt ’19 dropped her first match to a player from Amherst as well. Amherst was the third-ranked team in the nation last year. Leavitt lost in a 6-2, 6-4 decision.
In doubles action, the Judges entered two pairs. Cohen and Leavitt fell to a Middlebury pair in an 8-4 decision in the opening round of the tournament. Also for the Judges, Emily Eska ’16 and Sophia He ’19 were defeated in the first round by Tufts players.
The women’s team plays next on Oct. 16 with the NEWITT doubles tournament. The men’s team plays again on Oct. 10 in the two-day Wallach Invitational at Bates University.
