Men's Tennis Advances to ECAC Semifinals with Win over St. John's

Saturday, February 14

Cambridge, Mass.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

St. John's

Fliegner and Broom Advance to Second Round in Doubles

Men's Tennis Advances to ECAC Semifinals with Win over St. John's

2/15/2015 7:35:00 AM | Men's Tennis

By: Dartmouth

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Second-seeded Dartmouth men's tennis team returned to the courts on Saturday to compete in the 2015 ECAC Championship at the Murr Tennis Center on Harvard's campus. After getting a bye in the first round, the Big Green squared off against No. 7 seed St. John's in the quarterfinals, defeating the Red Storm by a score of 4-3.

Dartmouth improved to 4-3 on the season, while St. John's dipped to 3-3.

The 16th-ranked team of senior Chris Kipouras and junior Dovydas Sakinis got things started on a positive note by defeating Lucas Hejhal and Vaidik Munshaw, 6-2, at the No. 1 doubles. Junior Brendan Tannenbaum and sophomore Max Schmidt, playing together for the first time this season, beat Robert Livi and Erick Reyes by a score of 6-4 to give Dartmouth the doubles point.

Elio Livi tied the match at 1-1 by defeating Pedraza 6-4, 6-3, at the No. 4 singles position. Sakinis and Kipouras, playing in the No. 1 and 2 positions, respectively, put the Big Green up 3-1 by posting identical 6-2, 7-5 victories over Lucas Hejhal and Erick Reyes. With their backs against the wall, the Red Storm responded by getting wins at the No. 3 and 5 positions to even the match at 3-3. Robert Livi defeated freshman Ciro Riccardi, 6-3, 6-4, and Munshaw ousted Tannenbaum, 6-4, 6-2.

With a berth in the semifinals on the line, freshman Max Fliegner battled against Federico Ruiz Acevedo at the No. 6 position. After winning a close first set, 7-5, Fliegner served out the match at 6-3 to give the Green a 4-3 victory.

“Our message to the players remains consistent”, head coach Chris Drake said. “Take positive steps in our team's development, commit to our processes, and control the things that we can control. We are looking forward to battling a very good Brown team tomorrow evening.”

Dartmouth will face off against Brown on Sunday in the semifinals. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

#1 – No. 16 Kipouras and Sakinis (Dartmouth) def. No. 39 Hejhal and Munshaw (St. John's), 6-3
#2 – Todd and Pedraza (Dartmouth) vs. Every and Acevedo (St. John's), 5-5, DNF
#3 – Tannenbaum and Schmidt (Dartmouth) def. R. Livi and Reyes (St. John's), 6-4

#1 – No. 60 Sakinis (Dartmouth) def. Hejhal (St. John's), 6-2, 7-5
#2 – No. 93 Kipouras (Dartmouth) def. Reyes (St. John's), 6-2, 7-5
#3 – R. Livi (St. John's) def. Riccardi (Dartmouth), 6-3, 6-4
#4 – E. Livi (St. John's) def. Pedraza (Dartmouth), 6-4, 6-3
#5 – Munshaw (St. John's) def. Tannenbaum (Dartmouth), 6-4, 6-2
#6 – Fliegner (Dartmouth) def. Ruiz (St. John's), 7-5, 6-3