Tennis: Tribe men fall in match at 41st-ranked Cornell

Saturday, William and Mary traveled to Ithaca, New York to take on No. 41 Cornell. Despite taking the doubles point early on, the Tribe (9-7) fell 5-2 to the Big Red (7-6).

Freshman Michael Chen and sophomore Brenden Volk started the Tribe off strong in its doubles contest at the No. 3 spot against Daniel Grunberger and Alafia Ayeni, coming out on top 6-3. The dynamic duo of junior Tristan Bautil and senior Alec Miller secured the point with a 6-4 victory over Cornell’s Jake Hansen and Lev Kazakov at the top spot. Senior Christian Cargill and freshman Louis Newman’s match at the No. 2 spot went unfinished.

Freshman Sebastian Quiros was the sole singles winner for the Tribe against the Big Red, defeating Cornell’s Pietro Rimondini at the No. 5 spot. After dropping the first set 6-4, Quiros came back to take the final two sets 6-4, 6-1.

Cornell took over the Tribe’s early lead, winning three-straight singles matches at the top three spots. Miller dropped both sets at the No. 1 spot 6-2 to Cornell’s David Volfson. Cargill followed suit, falling 6-4, 6-2 at the No. 2 spot to Ayeni. At the No. 3 spot, Newman was unable to come back from a deep second set, eventually falling 6-3, 7-6 (7) to Kazakov. Volk fell behind early in his match against Hansen, dropping the first set 6-1. He came back with a 6-4 win in the second set, sending the match into a third set, which Hansen eventually claimed with a 6-3 triumph. Hansen’s success at the No. 6 spot put the Big Red up 4-1, marking their win over the College.

Freshman Finbar Talcott’s match at the No. 4 spot also went to a third set after winning the first set 6-2 and dropping the second set 7-5. Opponent Grunberger took the third set 6-4, closing out the match.

The Tribe will head to Greensville, North Carolina on March 31 to take on the East Carolina.