Men's Tennis Ends Most Successful Season Yet with Loss to No. 1 Trinity in NCAA Tournament Second Round
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (May 3, 2008) – Ranked No. 1 in the nation in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III poll, Trinity University (Texas) posted a 5-0 victory over Stevens Institute of Technology during the Second Round of the NCAA D-III Men’s Tennis Championship on Saturday morning at the Battleground on the campus of the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. With the win, the top-seeded Tigers advanced to Sunday’s regional final to play either second-seeded UMW or third-seeded Washington & Lee University. With the loss, the fourth-seeded Ducks closed out the year with an overall record of 16-7 as they tied the school record for wins in a season that they set just last season.
One day after sweeping all three doubles contests against Neumann College en route to its first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, Stevens lost the three doubles matches against Trinity. At first doubles, senior Ricky Bawa and sophomore Piotr Rusinkiewicz dropped an 8-2 decision to seniors Ryan DeSantis (Kilgore, Texas) and Oliver Gaines (Austin, Texas). Seniors James Furr (Tulsa, Oklahoma) and David Tran (Houston, Texas) followed with an 8-0 win over freshmen Arik Zeevy and Jay Lee at No. 2 doubles. In the third-doubles match, freshmen Bobby Cocanaugher (Southlake, Texas) and Cory Kowal (Austin, Texas) claimed an 8-1 victory over freshmen Jason Ringstad and Carlo Pardo.
Needing to only win two of six singles matches, the Tigers sealed their victory with wins at third and fifth singles. At third singles, Tran topped Rusinkiewicz by the score of 6-1, 6-0. Cocanaugher defeated Lee in straight-sets (6-4, 6-0) at fifth singles. The other four matches were not completed. At the time the overall match ended, Stevens was down a set in each flight.
In the first-singles match, Zeevy lost the first set 6-2 to Gaines but led 1-0 in the second. Bawa dropped the first 6-4 to Furr but held a 2-1 advantage in the second at No. 2 singles. Sophomore Varun Munjal (Lake Jackson, Texas) took the first set 6-2 against Ringstad at fourth singles. Meanwhile, junior Crisanto Ramirez (McAllen, Texas) was up 6-4, 1-0 at sixth singles against junior Kobe Attias.
Saturday’s loss to Trinity ended a five-match winning streak for the Ducks, who were making their second-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Last week, Stevens defeated two-time defending champion Ithaca College to claim the Empire 8 title in just its first season in the conference. Prior to that, the Ducks had won four Skyline Conference crowns in a row from 2004-07. Last year, Stevens received its first-ever bid to the NCAA Tournament and lost to Salve Regina University, 5-0, in the first round. The Ducks ended last season with a mark of 16-8.
