Quinnipiac University
Northern Illinois University
QU Men's Tennis Faces Five Opponents in Four Days During Spring Break Trip to Florida
3/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
- QU Men's Tennis Homepage
- QU Men's Tennis Schedule
- MAAC Men's Tennis Standings
Serving First
The Quinnipiac men's tennis team traveled to the Orlando, Florida area for its annual spring break trip where they will compete in five matches in four days, starting with the Northern Illinois Huskies at 12 P.M. at Sanlando Park in Altomonte Springs, Florida.
Scouting the Huskies
Quinnipiac will take on Northern Illinois on its first full day in Florida with a Sunday afternoon match to kick off the trip with a match at 12 P.M. The Huskies are 8-3 this season, including 5-0 at home in Rockford, Illinois. Northern Illinois began dual match play on Jan. 16 with a 7-0 loss to Drake University followed by a three match winning streak before a 4-0 loss to Indiana. After the loss to the Hoosiers, North Illinois went on a five-match winning streak. Last time out, the Huskies fell to the Marquette Golden Eagles, 4-2, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Golden Eagles swept the doubles matches but the Huskies were able to pull away with two singles victories from Tom Hjertonsson and Louis-Philippe Hamel. Hjertonsson leads the Huskies with 24 wins this season, going 24-15 overall, including 13-8 in singles. Frederic Cadieux has been the main competitor at No. 1 singles, going 10-9 in singles and 5-5 in doubles, including 5-4 at no. 1 doubles. Hamel has also posted double digit wins, going 11-6 in singles and 7-10 in idoubles, mainly competiting with Georg Lundkvist at No. 2 doubles going 4-5.
Scouting the Crusaders
With a quick turnaround after the North Illinois match, the Bobcats will face the Valparaiso Crusaders in the first match of a doubleheader on Monday, March 9 at 8 A.M. Valparaiso is another formidable opponent for Quinnipiac, as they are 11-2 this season and are currently riding a two game winning streak. The Crusaders have enjoyed great success at home, going 8-0. The Crusaders have also faced two ranked opponents, falling 5-0 to nationally-ranked No. 3 Illinois and nationally-ranked No. 26 Northwestern, 6-1. Valparaiso has already started its spring break trip, going 2-0 against Coe College and St. Thomas Aquinas (N.Y.) with wins on Saturday, March 7 by margins of 5-2 and 7-0, respectively. For the most part, the Crusaders have dominated their opponents. Every player has compiled a winning record in singles and nearly every doubles pair has been above .500 as well. Garrett Gardner leads the Crusaders in singles, going 18-3 with a 9-1 record in No. 3 and No. 4 singles. Dave Bacalla has seen the majority of the action at No. 1 singles, going 13-6 and 6-3 in dual matches. Jeffrey Schorsch is the other Crusader locked into a spot in the rotation, going 17-6 and 7-3 in No. 2 singles. Schorsch and Charlie Emhardt are the top doubles pair as they have compiled a 19-4 record and are 8-2 at No. 1 doubles. Bacalla and Chase Hamilton are 9-6, cinluding 4-4 at No. 2 doubles and Gardner and Lucas Weak have combined to go 5-2 at doubles, including 4-2 at No. 3 doubles.
Scouting the Pirates
The Bobcats will face the Hampton Pirates in the second match of a doubleheader on Monday, March 9 at 4:30 P.M. Under the direction of new head coach Rush Cole, Hampton is 0-5 to start its season and have lost four matches 7-0, with one match finishing with a 6-1 loss. Lakshmana Satchithananthan is the only Pirate to record a singles victory as he is 1-3, picking up the win at No. 6 singles against Norfolk State. Four different Pirates are 0-5, including Luke Thompson who has competed at No. 1 singles all season for Hampton. Satchithananthan also commands the only doubles win as well, as he and Joshua McQueen are 1-2 at No. 3 doubles this season. Peter Odegbami and Fedor Shirin are a combined 0-5 at No. 2 doubles for the Pirates.
Scouting the Hurricanes
Quinnipiac picked up an extra match with the Miami Hurricanes scheduled for Tuesday, March 10 with the time still to be announced. Miami has spent much of the season ranked in the top 75 and have faced several opponents also ranked in the top 75. The Hurricanes have been ranked as high as No. 52, where they were for four matches from Jan. 18 to Jan. 25 and the highest ranked opponent they faced was No. 40 Drake on Jan. 24, where they lost a close match, 4-2. Miami is currently 4-5 on the season and have won three of their last four matches. Last time out, Miami faced George Washington at home in Coral Gables, Florida and defeated the Colonials, 6-1. Piotr Lomacki and Wilfredo Gonzalez have won the most singles matches this season, with each compiling a 5-3 record. Lomacki has played all eight matches from the No. 1 slot while Gonzalez has bounced around between slots two through four. Henrique Tsukamoto is the only other Hurricane to post a record about .500 in singles, going 5-4, including 4-2 at No. 3 singles. Lomacki and Tsukamoto have been a dominant doubles pair this season, going 7-2 in their nine matches, including 6-2 at No. 1 doubles. Kevin Bondar and Gonzalez are a perfect 5-0 so far this season, posting a 3-0 record in No. 2 doubles and 2-0 at No. 3. These two doubles teams are the only two to see consistent playing time together for the Hurricanes, with the other pairings changing frequently.
Scouting the Mountain Hawks
The Bobcats will close out the Spring Break trip to Florida with a match on Wednesday with the Lehigh Mountain Hawks at 4:30 P.M. Lehigh has had a strong start to their season, going 6-2 including winning its last two matches and it has not played a single dual match away from home. In its last two matches, Lehigh has defeated Fairleigh Dickson, 5-2, and UConn, 6-1, for its two straight wins. Jeremy Kochman is a perfect 7-0 for the Mountain Hawks, mainly competing at No. 4 singles where he is 5-0. Ben Gilman has played all eight matches at No. 1 singles, going 3-5 while Ethan Bogard has seen great success at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, going 6-1. Mitchell Peterson is the only other Mountain Hawk to post a record greater than .500 in singles as he is 5-3 seeing time at No. 2, 3 and 4 singles. Doubles has been fairly successful for Lehigh as Gilman and Kochman have combined to go 5-2 in doubles while Peterson and Bogard are also 5-2.
Last Time Out
The Bobcats fell to the Army Black Knights, 5-2, in West Point, New York at the Lichtenberg Tennis Center back on Saturday, Feb. 14. Despite Army sweeping doubles over Quinnipiac, the Bobcats were able to rebound and get two points in singles with wins from Julian Rozenstein and Luke Roser. Rozenstein defeated Army's Austin McCasin, 6-3, 6-4, while Roser picked up a big win over Michael Nguyen, 6-1, 6-4.
Colder Weather
Two matches have already been postponed this spring for the Bobcats due to the weather throughout January. First, a match at Boston University was postponed on Feb. 8 with a makeup date unlikely to be reached. The second match postponed was supposed to come on Feb. 22 down in Jersey City, New Jersey at Saint Peter's, but due to the weather, it had to be postponed to the second to last match of the season for Quinnipiac on April 17.
Escaping the Cold
The Bobcats hope to escape the cold during their spring break trip to Orlando, Florida. Temperatures are expected to be in the 80s all week during the Bobcats trip to Florida, including an expected beautiful day on Tuesday when the anticipated high is 87 degrees with mostly sunny skies.
Impressive Start
Julian Rozenstein has been one of the several impressive freshman for Quinnipiac as his win over Austin McCasin at Army gave him his 24th win of the season to start his collegiate career. Not only was it his 24th overall win, but it was also Rozenstein's 11th victory in singles as he improved to 24-11 with an 11-5 record in singles play.
Lucky Luke
Luke Roser picked up his second victory of the spring with his singles win over Michael Nguyen at Army, the only Bobcat to record multiple wins in the spring season. The win was Roser's 65th of his career as the junior improved to 13-5 in singles and dropped to 7-5 in doubles to have a 20-10 record so far this season.
Papa Pappas
Head coach Chris Pappas has the men's tennis team sitting at 3-2 in dual matches this season, his first at the helm of the men's tennis program. The Bobcats have wins over Siena, Hartford and UConn; including 7-0 sweeps of Siena and UConn. Pappas also has the Bobcats at 1-0 in MAAC matches this season with the win over Siena.
Blogging Ben
Junior Ben Teicher will once again control the blog for the men's tennis team on their trip to Florida. Keep checking the Quinnipiac men's tennis page for Ben's daily updates of the team's matches and adventures in Sunshine State.
