NEW YORK -- The Columbia men's tennis team became the first collegiate tennis program to secure program win at the Cary Leeds Tennis Center, defeating visiting Old Dominion 5-2. En route to defeating the Monarchs, the Lions collected three consecutive doubles wins while taking four singles victories.
Starting strong,
Max Westphal and
Theo Winegar collected the first win of the day in the top-spot doubles match against Luca Maldoner and Yevhen Sirous (6-4).
Roko Horvat and
Austen Huang sealed the doubles point with their first win as partners, taking down Francois Le Tallec and Younes Lalami 6-4.
Henry Ruger and Jayden Templemen secured the doubles sweep with a hard fought 7-6 victor over Codie Van Schalkwyk and Oliver Nolan.
In the singles competition, early sets proved insightful as four Lions' collected first-set wins followed by the match victory.
Hugo Hashimoto defeated Le Tallec 6-4, 6-2 for his first career win from the top spot. Westphal followed suit, collecting a straight set win over Maldoner (6-3, 6-4).
Henry Ruger collected a third consecutive singles win, defeating Oliver Nolan 6-1, 7-5 for the match-clinching point. Horvat wrapped up Columbia's outing at Cary Leeds with his first dual match singles win. Horvat took the first set from Lalami before battling to a 7-6 result in the second.
Columbia returns to the road this weekend, traveling to Knoxville, Tennesse from Feb. 11-13. The Lions will face Charlotte on Friday at 6:00 P.M. before facing top-seeded Tennessee on Sunday at 1:00 P.M..
Located in the Bronx, The Cary Leeds Tennis Center opened its doors in the summer of 2015 with the intent to spread tennis through New York City's youth. Since 2015, the center has provided over 6,000 of free tennis instruction to over 7,000 youth athletes and 1,000 adults. With the help of Columbia's athletic facilities personnel, Cary Leeds successfully hosted the first collegiate dual match of its impactful history.
Stay up to date on all things Columbia Men's Tennis by following the Lions on Twitter (@CULionsMTEN), Instagram (@culionsmten) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).
