Men's Tennis: Tournament christens renovated Lenz

The men’s tennis team opened fall play this weekend, hosting nine schools in the Farnsworth Invitational. Eleven Tigers competed in the invitational, including freshmen Ben Quazzo and Zack McCourt, who made their collegiate debut.

For the Tigers, this weekend provided valuable experience that they look to build upon for the rest of the fall.

“Each of us can take something from this tournament that we need to work on,” junior Matt Siow said. “From each tournament we want to get better, and we’re going to practice hard and work hard and get a little bit better each day. By the time the big tournaments like Regionals come, we’ll be ready.”

Besides opening the fall season, the Farnsworth Invitational allowed McCourt and Quazzo to compete on the college level for the first time. With a strong freshman class, Princeton plans on seeing contributions from its newcomers.

“The freshmen are really good.” Siow said. “It’s really hard to gauge them from the first tournament, because it’s their first college tennis experience. I know Zack didn’t play as well as he wanted to but that will come with more experience. He has a lot of talent, and I know he’ll become more comfortable playing on the college level, so I’m confident he’ll be able to contribute. If Ben asserts his game, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with as well.”

Princeton enjoyed a successful first day of play, compiling eight wins on Friday. In the A singles bracket, sophomore Augie Bloom soundly defeated Russell Bader of Penn State in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. McCourt also took his B singles match in straight sets, defeating Cornell’s Alex Sydney 6-3, 6-2. In the C singles bracket, Sophomore Dan Richardson defeated Pennsylvania’s Mark Millbrandt 6-1, 6-1. In the E singles bracket, Senior Yohei Shoji defeated Andrew Denny of Fairleigh Dickinson 6-3, 6-1, while junior Michael Lin was victorious over Penn State’s Guanhua Chen 7-6, 6-3.

Princeton also earned victories in doubles play, with Siow and fellow junior Matt Spindler winning both of their doubles matches to advance to the semifinals of the B doubles bracket. Siow is also a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

The following day, four Tigers won, advancing to play on the final day. Siow and Spindler dominated Columbia’s duo of Winston Lin and Bert Vancura 8-1 to clinch a berth in the finals of the B doubles bracket. Siow picked up two victories to advance to the B singles consolation finals, and Quazzo and senior Ravi Yegya-Raman won two matches each to advance to the finals of the D and E singles consolation bracket, respectively.

Siow and Spindler finally met their match on Sunday, falling 8-2 to Cornell’s Venkat Iyer and Alex Sidney in the B doubles final. Siow was also defeated by Sidney 6-4, 6-3 in the B singles consolation final. Yegya-Raman lost a tough match to Columbia’s Theodore Marin 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the D singles consolation final. Quazzo found success on Sunday, however, winning the E singles consolation bracket by defeating Yuri Gricheno of FDU 6-3, 6-3.

Princeton returns to action this weekend when it heads to New York to compete in the United States Tennis Association Invitational.