By Grant Playter | Staff Writer
Ewing — The final day of the Lions Kickoff Tournament has come and gone, and the men’s tennis teams from The College of New Jersey, New York University, Dickinson College, and Stevens Institute of Technology had their opportunity to show what they’re made of going into the fall season.
Ultimately, TCNJ once again came out on top, with the Lions winning 10 of their 12 match-ups in the tournament. Stevens won eight of their match-ups, NYU closely followed going six-for-six, while Dickinson ultimately did not win any of their match-ups.
Horace Choy, NYU tennis head coach, discussed his observations about his team’s performance at length.
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“For us, I think serve and returns are going to be very important moving forward,” Choy said. “It’s something that got better as the day went on, but still something we’re going to stress in regards to moving forward with our spring season.”
Focusing on weaknesses is not the only goal of the team’s in the tournament, however. Tournaments like the Lions Kickoff are an excellent opportunity for teams to learn about fresh talent, identify strengths they need to concentrate on, and iron out weaknesses they see in their players.
“As far as strengths, I thought there was some good chemistry in some of our doubles teams,” Choy said. “I felt like Jay (Min) and Josh (Piatos) played very well together, I think Rahul (Das) and Umberto (Setter) have the potential to be a very good team, they just need to work together a little bit more and be a little bit steadier in their level, I think it was a little bit up and down every now and again.”
If one looks at the data across these three days, some interesting statistics. For instance, if one looks at TCNJ’s record over this period, of the 34 matches they played, they won 27, or roughly 80%. Conversely, of the 25 games they played, Dickinson won one (Butler/Warner vs. Binder/Jeffrey, 8-5) or just 4% of their games.
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But both teams benefit from tournaments like these. TCNJ gets the opportunity to cement its status as one of the strongest Division III tennis teams, while the other schools get an opportunity to grow their skills against tougher opponents. In that line of thought, every team who participated in the tournament got something out of it. What a smash success!
Detailed Results Breakdown (Winners in BOLD)
Round One
Thomas Wright / Matt Puig (TCNJ) vs. Rahul Das / Umberto Setter (NYU) (8-6)
Tim Gavornik / Chris Dagostino (TCNJ) vs. Michael Li / Shrikar Kundur (NYU) (8-4)
Rahul Goculdas / Sean Reilly (TCNJ) vs. Jay Min / Joshua Piatos (NYU) (9-7)
Omar Bokhari / Andrew Mok (TCNJ) vs. Jack Fishwick / Chong (NYU) (8-5)
Samuel Loring / Shawn Diniz (Dickinson) vs. Kyle Henry / Bryan Szayna (Stevens) (8-4)
Peter Schmidt / David Weltz (Dickinson) vs. Danny Polk / William Persson (Stevens) (8-4)
Joey Bolanos / Vincent Dias (Dickinson) vs. Keegan Morris / Mark Kanevsky (Stevens) (8-3)
Selya / Nicholas Reese (Dickinson) vs. David Schulz / Gabriel Sifuentes (Stevens) (8-2)
Round Two
Thomas Wright / Matt Puig (TCNJ) vs. Kyle Henry / Bryan Szayna (Stevens) (8-2)
Tim Gavornik / Chris D’Agostino (TCNJ) vs. Danny Polk / William Persson (Stevens) (8-6)
Rahul Goculdas / Sean Reilly (TCNJ) vs. Keegan Morris / Mark Kanevsky (Stevens) (8-6)
Achyuth Balijepalle / Omar Bokhari (TCNJ) vs. David Schulz / Gabriel Sifuentes (Stevens) (8-4)
Peter Schmidt / David Weltz (Dickinson) vs. Rahul Das / Umberto Setter (NYU) (8-6)
Samuel Loring / Joey Bolanos (Dickinson) vs. Michael Li / Shrikar Kundur (NYU) (8-4)
Shawn Diniz / Nicholas Reese (Dickinson) vs. Jay Min / Joshua Piatos (NYU) (8-2)
Round Three
Thomas Wright / Matt Puig (TCNJ) vs. Peter Schmidt / David Weltz (Dickinson) (8-4)
Tim Gavornik / Chris D’Agostino (TCNJ) vs. Shawn Diniz / Joey Bolanos (Dickinson) (8-1)
Rahul Goculdas / Sean Reilly (TCNJ) vs. Samuel Loring / Nicholas Reese (Dickinson) (8-4)
Achyuth Balijepalle / Andrew Mok (TCNJ) vs. Bryce Perritt / Selya (Dickinson) (8-4)
Danny Polk / William Persson (Stevens) vs. Umberto Setter / Rahul Dias (NYU) (9-7)
Kyle Henry / Bryan Szayna (Stevens) vs. Jay Min / Joshua Piatos (NYU) (8-5)
Keegan Morris / Mark Kanevsky (Stevens) vs. Shrikar Kundur / Aaron Mackie (NYU) (10-8)
David Schulz / Gabriel Sifuentes (Stevens) vs. Zeb Zheng / Justin Chong (NYU) (9-7)
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