Tennis: Healthy Pecotic wins Columbia tourney

The men’s and women’s tennis teams returned to team competition this weekend, after select players competed in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-America tournaments during the week. Both teams traveled to New York, with the men participating in the Columbia Fall Classic and the women competing in the United States Tennis Association Invitational in Queens.

It was a successful weekend for the men’s team, led by junior Matija Pecotic, who won the A singles flight. Pecotic was coming off a trip to Oklahoma in which he played among the nation’s best at the All-America tournament. Pecotic defeated Thai Tu of the University of San Francisco on Tuesday before falling 6-1, 6-2 to Oklahoma University’s Peerakit Siributwong. Overall, the trip proved valuable to Pecotic.

“The ITA All-American was a great experience for me to see some of the best guys in the country, and see how I match up against them,” Pecotic said. “I realized that these guys are good, but it gave me confidence to see that I can compete with them and win matches if I play well. The differences in these matches are extremely small, perhaps only a few points during each set. It gives me motivation to continue to improve and capitalize when I play against these top guys and believe that I can win against each player.”

At the Columbia Fall Classic this weekend, Pecotic got off to a strong start on Friday, clinching a victory over Fairfield’s Dan Sauter in straight sets 6-3, 6-0. The following day, Pecotic faced two tough foes from Columbia. In the quarterfinals Pecotic battled Nate Gery to a third-set tie break, finally retiring him by a score of 6-7(8), 6-1, (10-4). Pecotic met Haig Schneiderman in the semifinals, beating him only in the third set as well. Pecotic overcame Scheniderman 4-6, 6-3, (10-7) to reach the finals of the A singles bracket.

On Sunday, Pecotic overcame Milo Hauk of St. John’s University in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to win the A singles final and wrap up tournament play for the Tigers. Pecotic has been hampered by injury this fall, so competing at a high level this week was a welcome result.

“It’s been a tough road during these last four months,” Pecotic said. “I couldn’t play tennis for four months due to injury, and I guess that didn’t do the best thing for my confidence coming back this year. I tried to control the things that I can during this tournament, being ready physically and competing as hard as I could. I kept visualizing all my opponents and my patterns of play during the summer months. Repeating the plays over and over again. I was mentally tuned in during the time when I wasn’t playing, so it didn’t seem too foreign when I came back. I couldn’t wait to get back. I’m extremely grateful to the people who put in a lot of work to get me healthy again and to have the opportunity to compete again. I was happy with my execution and decision-making during tough moments in this tournament. This tournament was a great step in getting better. I’m just looking to improve a little bit more this week, and try and come in with the same mindset for Regionals. Point by point, whatever the outcome.”

Pecotic was not the only Tiger to find success at the Columbia Fall Classic. The doubles pairing of junior Michael Lin and senior Yohei Shoji advanced to the semifinals of the A doubles bracket before falling 8-6 to Vasko Mladenov and Michael Lampa of St. John’s. Seniors Coleman Crutchfield and Ravi Yegya-Raman advanced to the B and C singles quarterfinals, respectively, before facing defeat.

Despite his victories this weekend, Pecotic said he knows there is still work to do.

“There are always things to work on,” Pecotic said. “Everyone wants to win, so if I stop working on my game, the others will catch up pretty quickly. Everything can be better, decisions, movement and execution. I think that as a team, we have to work on believing that our system is impregnable, and I wouldn’t mind seeing even more ferociousness from here on out. I’m confident in my team’s ability and I am sure that we will attack like tribal warriors this weekend.”

Pecotic said he remains incredibly focused, preparing for the team’s trip to Cornell this weekend to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association regional.

“My focus is on doing the right thing on each point and being aggressive with the forehand and serve,” Pecotic said. “You have to take it. No one will give you the match. I’m focusing on implementing my patterns during each match and trying my best at every moment. If I focus on other unimportant things, then the task gets unnecessarily complicated. Tennis can be simple if you’ve put in the hours and focus on the things that are within your control.”

The women’s team began play at the United States Tennis Invitational on Saturday, earning five wins on the singles courts and four wins on the doubles courts. Among the standouts were freshmen Katie Goepel and Joan Cannon and sophomore Caitlin Bartlett, who each won a singles match and two doubles matches each.

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The duo of Cannon and Bartlett continued its success into Sunday, narrowly defeating Cornell’s Rosemary Li and Sara Perelman 9-7 to advance to the finals of the C doubles bracket. Goepel and senior Rachel Saiontz also earned a berth to the finals of the B doubles flight by eliminating Amber Li and Annie Sullivan of Yale, 8-5.

Senior Hilary Bartlett and freshman Lindsay Graff competed earlier in the week at the All-America tournament in California. The duo advanced to the round of 16 of the qualifying doubles draw before falling 9-8(5) to University of Michigan’s Emina Bektas and Brooke Bolender. Bartlett also competed in the singles draw, losing 6-3, 6-1 to UCLA’s Robin Anderson in the round of 64.

Goepel and Saiontz lost 9-8(6) in a tiebreaker to a North Texas duo on Monday morning, while Caitlin Bartlett and Cannon suffered the same fate to a team from the same school, 8-6.