Engineers Defeat SUNY Oneonta, 9-0
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In its first home match of the 2012-13 season on a cold New England afternoon, MIT men's tennis defeated SUNY Oneonta, 9-0.
MIT got off to a good start when senior Matthew Skalak (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.) and junior Edwin Zhang (Falls Church, Va.) began the day with an 8-3 win over Michael Kennelly and Tyler Crill. Sophomore Eugene Oh (Alparetta, Ga.) and junior Curtis Wu (Yorba Linda, Calif.) followed up with an 8-4 victory over Mackenzie Park and Benjamin Leighton and freshmen Jeffrey Bu (Arcadia, Calif.) and David Garcia (Corpus Christi, Texas) wrapped up the doubles pairings with an 8-2 win against Adam Slifkin and Matthew Richards.
With a 3-0 lead heading into singles, the Engineers continued to play fiercely against the Red Dragons. Zhang started things off with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Kennelly before senior Brian Oldfield (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands) defeated Crill with a 6-1, 6-2 victory and Wu finished off Leighton with a 6-3, 6-4 score. Senior Tymor Hamamasy (New York, N.Y.) made an appearance on the court for the first time that day and went on to have a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Park. Sophomore Christopher Hunter (Melville, N.Y.) followed soon after with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Slifkin.
The closest match of the day was between sophomore Avi Walden (Cortlandt, Pa.) and Matthew Richards. Walden won the first set, 6-4, but lost to Richards in the next set, 3-6. In the third and final set, Walden was able to clinch the win with a 10-7 victory over his opponent.
MIT will return to action when it faces Nichols College on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 1:00 pm., while the Red Dragons will not take part in any other matches until February.
