WALTHAM, Mass. – In a marathon match that took nearly five hours to play and spanned two venues, the Brandeis men's tennis team fell to 26th-ranked MIT today, 5-4. the Judges fall to 8-8 as they head to Pittsburgh for the University Athletic Association championships at Carnegie Mellon, while the Engineers improve to 11-1 on the campaign.
Brandeis started the match quickly, winning two of three doubles matches. Juniors Simon Miller (Plantation, Fla./Plantation) and Nick White (Wellesley, Mass./Wellesley) were 8-5 winners at No. 1 singles for the Judges, while rookie Fred Rozenshteyn (Fair Lawn, N.J./Fair Lawn) and sophomore Mike Tatarsky (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Valley) needed a tie-breaker at No. 3, winning 9-8 (7-5) to give Brandeis a 2-1 lead headed into singles action. MITs lone doubles point came from brothers Larry and Kevin Pang (Torrance, Calif./California Acad. of Math and Science), who took an 8-3 win at No. 2.
In singles action, Rozenshteyn gave Brandeis an early edge with a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 5, while rookie Tymor Hamamsy (New York, N.Y./Saint Ann's) got the Engineers on the board with a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 6.
Miller pushed Brandeis to the edge of victory with a 6-2, 6-3, triumph at second singles, but Larry Pang and rookie Brian Oldfield (St. Thomas, V.I./Antilles) won at No. 3 and 4 – 7-6, 6-1 for Pang and 6-1, 6-4 for Oldfield, to set up the decisive match at the top of the line-up.
Kevin Pang took the first set from White, 6-4, but the Brandeis player answered with a 6-2 win in the second. In the third set, the two were on serve for the first four games before Pang broke to go ahead, 3-2. White broke right back to even the match once again, but Pang responded with his second break of the set to take a 4-3 lead. The eighth game of the set proved to be the decisive one. Pang had six opportunities to win the match on his advantage, but each time, White was able to force the game back to deuce.
White had to use a medical timeout at the third deuce during the game, returning to the court with a broken racket string, but still battled back to force two more deuces after returning to the proper racket. On his seventh attempt, Pang was finally able to consolidate the break at 5-3. By then, the court was too dark to continue, so the teams adjourned to the Waltham Athletic Club to finish, and Pang broke White at 30-40 to win the match.
#26 MIT
5, Brandeis University 4
Apr 20, 2010 at Waltham, Mass.
| Singles competition |
| 1. Kevin Pang (MIT) def. Nick White (BRMTEN) 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 |
| 2. Simon Miller (BRMTEN) def. Ken Van Tilburg (MIT) 6-2, 6-3 |
| 3. Larry Pang (MIT) def. Steven Milo (BRMTEN) 7-6, 6-1 |
| 4. Brian Oldfield (MIT) def. Dave Yovanoff (BRMTEN) 6-1, 6-4 |
| 5. Fred Rozenshteyn (BRMTEN) def. Matt Skalak (MIT) 6-4, 6-4 |
| 6. Tymor Hamamsy (MIT) def. Seth Rogers (BRMTEN) 6-3, 6-3 |
| Doubles competition |
| 1. Simon Miller/Nick White (BRMTEN) def. Matt Skalak/Ken Van Tilburg (MIT) 8-5 |
| 2. Kevin Pang/Larry Pang (MIT) def. Steven Milo/Dave Yovanoff (BRMTEN) 8-3 |
| 3. Fred Rozenshteyn/Michael Tatarsky (BRMTEN) def. Andy Cooper/Brian Oldfield (MIT) 9-8 (7-5) |
| Match Notes |
| MIT 11-1; National ranking #26 |
| Brandeis University 8-8 |
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