The men’s and women’s basketball teams at the University of Connecticut and the Boston University men’s and women’s tennis teams have something in common. National championships? No. National Players of the Year? Guess again. Athletes leaving school early to go pro? Not quite.
Both sets of teams prove that wins can come in pairs in the Nutmeg State.
Punctuality didn’t matter in the score for the Boston University men’s tennis team Thursday, as it enjoyed a resounding 5-2 victory over the University of Hartford in Conn., despite showing up fashionably late for the match.
“We got there late but we took the W,” said BU coach Jeremy Taylor. “It was pretty routine.”
Maybe routine, but still impressive as the Terriers (6-7) beat out the Hawks (8-5) in two of three doubles matches to take the early lead. The first win for BU came at the No. 2 spot, where Ross Lohr and Barret Wolf took the 8-5 decision. At third doubles, Topher Bertone-Ledford and Nick Gainias came away with the 8-6 victory to capture the doubles point for BU.
The singles play featured many tough matches, as BU came away with four of the six wins. Playing at first singles, Geoff Wagner gutted out a 7-6, 6-4, 7-6 decision. Things again went in BU’s favor in the bottom half of the lineup as Adam Siegel won at number four singles, 7-5, 6-2, while Lohr and Bertone-Ledford each took their second wins of the day in three sets at fifth and sixth singles, respectively.
Pumped by the win, the team is now gunning for the upcoming match against Boston College in Chestnut Hill on April 21. And Taylor minced no words when it came to rival BC.
“Terriers like to chomp on Hawks,” Taylor said, “but we are going to deep-fry an Eagle next Wednesday.”
The Boston University women’s tennis team seemed to be back in top form, as it tallied a 6-1 victory at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. on Wednesday following a win at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on April 8. The pair of victories marks the first consecutive wins for the Terriers since March 17. The Terriers have had three separate streaks of three wins or more thus far this season.
The day started off right for the Terriers (12-6), as they captured the doubles point over Quinnipiac (11-4), something the team hasn’t done since it defeated Yale University on March 28.
The second doubles team of Laura Ahmes and Elisa Glas won its match 8-3, and the No. 3 duo of Elena deMendoza and Monica Shepherd brought home the doubles point with a 9-7 win. It was the second appearance by Shepherd since having hand surgery in November.
BU dominated the singles events, winning five of six matches, with four of the wins coming in straight sets. Senior captain Lindsey Dynof won 6-2, 6-0 at first singles and at No. 2, deMendoza took home her second win of the day 6-2, 6-4.
Also taking two decisions on the afternoon were Glas – at fourth singles 6-3, 6-2 – and Ahmes, with a No. 5 singles win, 6-2, 2-6, 10-7. Sealing the singles envelope for BU was Aimee Charest, with a 6-1, 6-3 decision at the No. 6 spot.
The Terriers have one regular-season match left on Saturday at BC, and BU coach Lesley Sheehan said she expects nothing less than an intense showdown between old rivals. In case of rain, BU and BC will sqaure off on Sunday.
“We always have battles with them, and to beat them we will have to continue to play solidly,” the coach said.
BU must then prepare itself for the America East Tournament at Yale University from April 30-May 2. BU has taken the conference championship in 14 of the last 15 years
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
