The Hobart College tennis team will compete in the 2016 Liberty League Tournament this weekend, May 7-8, in Ithaca, N.Y. The matches will take place at the Reis Tennis Center at Cornell University.
Â
The Statesmen finished the regular season with a 9-8 overall record and a 4-3 mark in Liberty League play. Hobart clinched a playoff berth on Saturday, April 30, with a 5-4 win over Vassar in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The Statesmen will be the tournament's fourth seed and face top seeded, No. 20 in the nation Skidmore. In the other semifinal, No. 2 St. Lawrence will take on No. 3 Rensselaer. The two semifinal winners will meet Sunday at 10 a.m. for the conference championship.
Â
Sophomore
Harry Nichols and first-year
Jonathan Atwater share team-high honors with 13 wins each. Nichols is 13-7, playing a majority of his matches at No. 4 singles, while Atwater is 13-8, including a 7-4 mark at No. 2. First-year
Jonah Salita has played all 17 matches at No. 1 singles, posting a 9-8 overall record. In doubles play, Atwater and Salita have a team-high 12 wins. They collected Hobart's only point when the Statesmen and Thoroughbreds met in April.Â
Â
Skidmore is led by the nation's fifth ranked singles player, Kai Yuen Leung. Leung posted a 21-5 overall record this season and went 12-2 at No. 1 singles for the Thoroughbreds. Leung is joined in the ITA Northeast Regional Rankings by Steven Koulouris, who is ranked No. 21. Koulouris is 16-6 in singles play.
Â