Men’s Tennis Team Captures Fifth-Place at UAA Championship

04/26/08

The New York University men's tennis team defeated Brandeis University in their last match of the season on Saturday afternoon, April 26, at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship in Atlanta, GA. With the win, the Violets earned fifth place in this year’s tournament, an improvement from last year’s sixth-place finish.

For the second straight year, the Violets squared off against the #6-seeded Judges in the fifth-place match of the Championship. However, unlike last year’s 5-4 loss, this year’s team was able to edge the Judges, winning by a 5-2 decision.

It was the second time this season the Violets defeated their UAA rival, the first win coming back on April 12, in Waltham, MA.

The Violets were led, as they were the entire season, by senior co-captain Mikhail Gurevich. Despite dropping his #1 doubles match with partner Craig Berger to Brandeis’ Simon Miller and Scott Schulman, the senior was able to bounce back. In the last match of his distinguished career, Gurevich defeated Miller 6-2, 6-4, in #1 singles, helping the Violets to victory.

“Mikhail has been great this entire tournament, going undefeated in singles this weekend,” said NYU head coach Horace Choy. “Mikhail has meant a tremendous amount to this team and I’m happy with the way he capped off his career this weekend.”

In #4 singles, sophomore P.J. Marranca dropped his first set 1-6, only to rebound and win the next two sets 6-3, 6-3 over Brandeis’ Seth Rogers, in what was a pivotal match.

Additionally for the Violets, junior co-captain Calvin Chou capped off his outstanding tournament performance with a win at both #2 singles and #2 doubles.

“I’m happy with the way our team stepped up and rebounded from our first-round loss,” exclaimed Choy. “As a team we continued to grow and improve throughout the entire season. We gave a great effort this weekend.”

Earlier in the day, the #5 seeded Violets defeated the #8 seed University of Rochester 5-4 in a thrilling, hard-fought match.

The Violets dropped all three doubles match-ups and fell into a 3-0 deficit entering singles play.

However NYU, as they showed all tournament long, were resilient, winning five out of six singles matches to take the win.

Chou won an important #2 singles match over Rochester's Ryan Kovaleski 3-6, 6-1,6-4 that pushed the Violets towards victory.

With the two wins on Saturday, NYU ends the season above .500 with an overall record of 10-9, a major improvement from last year’s 4-14 season.

Results for both matches are listed below.

Match-by-Match Results (NYU 5 - Brandeis 2)

Singles competition
1. Mikhail Gurevich (NYUM) def. Simon Miller (BRMTEN) 6-2, 6-4
2. Calvin Chou (NYUM) def. Steven Nieman (BRMTEN) 6-4, 6-3
3. Craig Berger (NYUM) def. Scott Schulman (BRMTEN) 6-3, 6-2
4. P.J. Marranca (NYUM) def. Seth Rogers (BRMTEN) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3
5. David Silver (BRMTEN) vs. Matthew Gross (NYUM) no result

Doubles competition
1. Simon Miller/Scott Schulman (BRMTEN) def. Mikhail Gurevich/Craig Berger (NYUM) 9-8 (8-6)
2. Calvin Chou/Matthew Gross (NYUM) def. Steven Nieman/Mayur Kasetty (BRMTEN) 8-0
3. David Silver/Seth Rogers (BRMTEN) def. Mike Greene/Phillip Rosenstein (NYUM) 8-5

Match-By-Match Results (NYU 5 - UR 4)

Singles competition
1. Mikhail Gurevich (NYUM) def. Brian Bowman (URM) 6-3, 7-5
2. Calvin Chou (NYUM) def. Ryan Kovaleski (URM) 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
3. Craig Berger (NYUM) def. Bennett Peterson (URM) 6-0, 6-2
4. Patrick Sheehan (URM) def. Eugene Tsarevskiy (NYUM) 6-2, 6-3
5. P.J. Marranca (NYUM) def. Adam Crosby (URM) 6-1, 6-0
6. Matthew Gross (NYUM) def. Daniel Barbash (URM) 6-4, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. Brian Bowman/Ryan Kovaleski (URM) def. Mikhail Gurevich/Brett Levin (NYUM) 9-8 (8-6)
2. Bennett Peterson/Daniel Barbash (URM) def. Calvin Chou/Matthew Gross (NYUM) 8-5
3. Patrick Sheehan/Adam Crosby (URM) def. Mike Greene/Phillip Rosenstein (NYUM) 9-8 (9-7)