Box Score CANTON, N.Y.— The Hobart tennis team opened its season this weekend at the St. Lawrence Fall Classic in Canton. The Statesmen had a strong showing against tough competition this weekend, with seniors
Troy Steiner and
Jacob Linares making it to the A flight doubles finals.
Hobart was joined by players from Hamilton, Ithaca, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, St. Lawrence and Union.
Flight A Singles
Senior
Nick Grosso started off strong with an 8-1 victory over Hamilton's Villem Aadamsoo. Grosso then fell in the second round to No. 2 seed Krish Vennam from the University of Rochester.
Flight B Singles
Sophomore
Achilleas Kousaridis opened his first round by defeating Ravi Rahu from Rochester, 8-5. He had to retire from his second round match with an injury.
Senior
Hyat Oyer was in a tight match but was edged by Ithaca's Emiliano Pedrero 8-7 (8-6).
Flight C Singles
Rahul Vallabhajosula and Steiner represented the Statesmen in C Flight.
Flight D Singles
Junior
Tarang Malhotra reached the semifinals. He had a great opening match defeating Daniel Saxe from Union, 8-2. He followed that match with another win against RIT's Maximillian Chang, 8-5. Malhotra was edged by eventual flight champion Charles Sternberg.
First-year
Marco Olmos had a strong collegiate debut beating Ithaca's Siddharth Desai, 8-0. Olmos then fell to Hamilton's Sternberg.
Flight A Doubles
The pairing of Steiner and Linares defeated Austin Gregory and Seth Prushko from Union College, 6-3 to open the tournament. In the quarterfinals, they beat Ithaca's Emiliano Pedrero and Ivan Kisic, 7-5. The pair then beat Jake David and Broderick Pinto from SLU, 6-3, in the semifinal round. In the championship match, they were edged by Alec Turcotte and Yu Tanimoto from RIT in a tiebreaker.
The Statesmen pair of Grosso and junior
Nick Fischer started their season off strong with a 6-1 victory over Union's Ben Jacobs and Jesus Sosa. The duo then fell in a tiebreaker in the quarterfinals.
Flight B Doubles
The No. 2 seed, Malholtra and Kousaridis, opened with a first round victory over RIT's Anthony Lounder and Ben Wallerstein, 6-1. They dropped a hard fought match in the quarterfinals.
Up Next
Hobart will be back in action Sept. 27-29, when it heads to Madison, N.J. for the ITA Northeast Regional at Drew University.
