University of Pennsylvania Win's ECAC Men's Indoor Tennis Championship

2/17/2019 6:34:32 PM

PHILADELPHIA, Penn. - In the final day of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division I Men's Indoor Tennis Championship, University of Pennsylvania grinded out a win against Harvard University.

The first match of the day featured Cornell University against Brown University. Cornell would take the early lead in the match by winning the doubles point. The combination of Alafia Ayani and Eero Vasa got the first win over Roger Chou and Charles Tan 6-3. Brown would answer with Peter Litsky and Ben Collier beating Lev Kazakov and Joe McAllister 6-4. Jack Hansen and Daniel Soyfer clinched the doubles point winning 7-5 over Ching Lam and Jacob Walker.

Cornell would take a quick and commanding 3-0 lead in the match. First was Pietro Rimondini beating Charles Tan 6-3, 6-4. That was followed by Lev Kazakov beating Ching Lam 6-3, 6-2. Brown did fight back by winning the next two singles points with Jacob Walker getting the win against Evan Bynoe 6-1, 3-6, 6-0. Robert Siniakowicz scored the next point in his straight set victory over Joe McAllister 6-2, 6-5. Cornell would clinch the match when Daniel Soyfer beat Roger Chu 6-4, 7-6 (4).

In the third-place match Dartmouth University beat Princeton University in convincing fashion 4-0. The Big Green took the doubles point by winning two consecutive doubles matches. First was Charlie Broom and Dave Horneffer beating Ryan Seggerman and Damian Rodriguez. Clinching the doubles point was Dan Martin and John Speicher with a score of 6-3 over Bill Dup and Payton Holden.

When it came to the singles portion of the match Dartmouth did not let off the gas. It started with Siddharth Chari beating Davey Roberts 7-6 (8), 6-2. Charlie Broom would continue to secure points and make it a 3-0 lead when he beat Ryan Seggerman. Broom won in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (2). Clinching the match for the Big Green was sophomore Peter Conklin when he beat Bill Duo in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.

The championship match was a thrilling one that came down to the final singles point that would be played. Harvard won the doubles point with their No. 1 and No. 2 doubles pairs winning. Andy Zhou and Logan Weber won 6-3 with Robert Wrzesinski and Brian Shi winning 6-3. The singles matches are where the real action got started.

The Quakers would storm back from their 1-0 deficit to take a 3-1 lead. It got started when senior Kyle Mautner defeated fellow senior Andy Zhou in straight sets 6-1, 6-2. The next clinched point was a matchup of two freshman, Penn’s Edoardo Graziani and Harvard’s Robert Wrzesinski. Graziani would win in straight sets 6-4, 6-2. The Quakers claimed their third point when Dimitry Shatalin beat Harry Walker. Shatalin won the first set 6-4 and battled back from a 3-5 deficit in the second set to win and clinch the match at 7-5. Harvard would not go down without a fight by winning the next two matches that both went three sets. First was Steven Sun beating Noah Makarome 5-7, 6-3, 6-1. Harvard’s Brian Shi also made a comeback win against Penn’s Kevin Zhu. Zhu won the first set 6-4 but Shi would answer back winning the next two sets 6-4, 6-2 to win the match.

The final singles match was an intense one to decide the championship. Max Cancilla got out to an early one set lead with a 6-4 first set win against Constantin Zoske. Zoske would answer in the second set by going to a tiebreaker and winning 7-6. In the third and final set Cancilla would break Zoske when they were tied at 3-3. Cancilla would not look back from there finishing the match off at 6-3 and clinching the championship win for the Quakers.

Cornell 4, Brown 2
Doubles
1. Ayeni/Vasa (C) def. Chour/Tan (B), 6-3
2. Hansen/Soyfer (C) def. Lam/ Walker (B), 7-5
3. Litsky/Collier (B) def. Kazakov/McAllister (C), 6-4
Singles
1. Peter Litsky (B) vs. Alafia Ayeni (C), DNF (6-7, 6-2, 2-4)
2. Lev Kazakov (C) def. Ching Lam (B), (6-3, 6-2)
3. Daniel Soyfer (C) def. Roger Chu (B), (6-4, 7-6 (4))
4. Jacob Walker (B) def. Evan Bynoe (C), (6-1, 3-6, 6-0)
5. Pietro Rimondini (C) def. Charles Tan (B), (6-3, 6-4)
6. Robert Siniakowic (B) def. Joe McAllister (C), (6-2, 7-5)

Dartmouth 4, Princeton 0
Doubles
1. Broom/Horneffer (D) def. Seggerman/Rodriguez (P) (6-3)
2. Poling/Barki (P) vs. Conklin/Ross (D) (5-4)
3. Martin/Speicher (D) def. Duo/Holden (P) (6-3)
Singles
1. Charlie Broom (D) def. Ryan Seggerman (P) (6-4, 7-6 (2))
2. Damian Rodriguez (P) vs. Dave Horneffer (D) DNF, (6-4, 5-7, 0-2)
3. Karl Poling (P) vs. Dan Martin (D) DNF (4-6, 6-2, 0-2)
4. Peter Conklin (D) def. Bill Duo (P) (6-2, 6-2)
5. Siddharth Chari (D) def. Davey Roberts (P) (7-6 (8), 6-2)
6. Will Peters (P) vs. Casey Ross (D) (4-6, 6-3)

Pennsylvania 4, Harvard 3
Doubles
1. Zhou/Weber (H) def. Mautner/Shatalin (P) (6-3)
2. Wrzesinski/Shi (H) def. Zhu/Graziani (H) (6-3)
3. Cancilla/Huryn (P) def. Morrow/Leschly (H) (6-0)
Singles
1. Kyle Mautner (P) def. Andy Zhou (H), (6-1, 6-1)
2. Edoardo Graziani (P) def. Robert Wrzesinski (H), (6-4, 6-2)
3. Brian Shi (H) def. Kevin Zhu (P), (4-6, 6-4, 6-2)
4. Dimitry Shatalin (P) def. Harry Walker (H), (6-4, 7-5)
5. Steven Sun (H) def. Noah Makarome (P), (5-7, 6-3, 6-1)
6. Max Cancilla (P) def. Constantin Zoske (H), (6-4, 6-7, 6-3)

Full bracket can be found here.

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