ITHACA, N.Y.— The 45th-ranked Hobart tennis team cruised to a 4-0 win over RIT this evening in the Liberty League semifinals at Cornell's Reis Tennis Center. With the win, the Statesmen improve to 12-8 on the season and advance to tomorrow's Liberty League title match against No. 10 Rensselaer. The Tigers conclude their season with a 9-9 overall record.
Hobart jumped out to an early lead after winning two of three doubles matches against RIT to secure the doubles point. Senior Nick Grosso and junior Nick Fischer continued their winning ways with their fourth straight victory as the duo downed Christian Berko and Grahith Movva 6-3 in the No. 1 spot.
In the No. 2 spot, seniors Hyat Oyer and Rahul Vallabhajosula secured their team-leading 13th dual match doubles win of the season as they defeated Alec Turcotte and Gabriel Escobar 7-5 to secure the doubles point. The Statesmen duo is now 13-4 in dual matches this season, including an 8-3 record at No. 2.
The Statesmen continued their strong play into singles action, winning the first three matches to secure the win. In the No. 1 spot, Oyer continued to impress as he defeated Yu Tanimoto 6-4, 6-0 to clinch the match. He improved to a team-leading 13-7 record in dual matches this season, including a 9-5 record in the No. 1 spot.
Vallabhajosula picked up a crucial win in the No. 4 spot as he defeated Escobar 7-5, 6-0, to move to 10-10 on the season in dual matches. Senior Jacob Linares closed out the win for Hobart with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Joel Pho in the No. 5 spot. The win was Linares' fourth of the season.
Fischer was up on Movva 7-6 (7-5), 5-1 in the No. 2 spot, but the match was abandoned as the Statesmen already secured the victory. Grosso was also in a tightly contested match at No. 3 with Turcotte before Hobart secured the victory.
UP NEXT
Hobart will be back in action tomorrow when they face No. 10 RPI (17-3) in the Liberty League title match. RPI advanced to the finals after defeating fourth-seeded Skidmore 4-0 in the first semifinal. First serve between the Statesmen and the Engineers is set for 1 p.m. at Reis Tennis Center.
