Men's Tennis Has Strong Showing at Larsen Bowker Invitational

Friday, January 20

Blacksburg, Va.

All Day

Columbia University

Virginia Tech/Davidson/MTSU

Men's Tennis Has Strong Showing at Larsen Bowker Invitational

1/23/2012 12:33:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Columbia University Athletics

NEW YORK – The Columbia men's tennis team opened the 2012 season with a round-robin invitational in Blacksburg, Va. this weekend, as the Lions took on players from Virginia Tech, Middle Tennessee State and Davidson over three days of play.

The tournament format had the Lions playing each of the three squads head-to-head, with flights determined by lineups. Players playing at Nos.1&2 were in flight A, Nos. 3&4 in Flight B, and Nos.5-8 in Flight C. Doubles was also broken down into two flights.

Friday, the Lions took on host No.34 Virginia Tech. First-years Winston Lin, Ashok Narayana and Bert Vancura all earned wins over the Hokies, along with junior John Yetimoglu, who won in three sets. In doubles, Lin and senior Haig Schneiderman had Columbia's lone win of the day, as they won in the No.2 spot, 9-8(5).

 Saturday had the Lions facing off against Davidson College. Columbia had wins in all eight singles spots, with only one match going to a third set. Lin won in the No.1 spot, while Nathaniel Gery, Narayana, Vancura, Tizian Bucher, Cyril Bucher, Yetimoglu and Max Schnur all notched wins for the Lions.

The final opponent of the weekend, Middle Tennessee State, proved to be a tough one for the Lions, as sophomore Tizian Bucher was the only Columbia player to get a singles win. In doubles, Schnur and Narayana and Cery and Vancura got wins in the Nos.2&3 spots respectively.

Overall, Virginia Tech won three of the five flights, with Middle Tennessee winning the other two. Columbia's Tizian Bucher was tied for the Flight C title, but lost to Trpimir Kujundzic of Virigina Tech due to a tiebreaker of games won. Columbia was also a part of a three-way tie in the Flight A doubles, but the games won tiebreaker went to Middle Tennessee.

Up next for the Lions is their first dual match of the season, as Columbia hosts Fordham at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center, Saturday, January 28 at 2 p.m.

Day One Results

1. No.58 Luka Somen (VT) def. No.40 Haig Schneiderman (Col) 6-2, 6-1

2. Winston Lin (COL) def. Patrick Daciek (VT) 6-4, 7-5

3. Lucas Oliveira (VT) def. Nathaniel Gery (COL) 7-5, 6-2

4. Ashok Narayana (COL) def. Mauricio Antun (VT) 6-4, 6-4

5. Bert Vancura (COL) def. Trpimir Kujundzic (VT) 6-3, 6-1

6. Corrado Degl' Incerti Tocci (VT) def. Tizian Bucher (COL) 6-4, 6-3

7. Marko Lovrinovic (VT) def. Cyril Bucher (COL) 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-3

8. John Yetimoglu (COL) def. Zachary Pine (VT) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3

Doubles

1. Somen/Tocci (VT) def. T. Bucher/Gery (COL) 8-5

2. Schneiderman/Lin (COL) def. Hunter Koontz/Oliveira (VT) 9-8(5)