ROME, Ga. – In their first NCAA tournament appearance in more than 30 years, the Brandeis University men's tennis team rolled to a 5-0 win over Grove City College today in the second round at the Rome Tennis Center in Georgia. With the win, the Judges, who received a first-round bye, improve to 7-1 on the season. They await the winner of the match between Skidmore College and Southern Virginia University, which will be played tomorrow at 10 a.m. Grove City ends its season at 9-3.
The Judges started strong, sweeping the doubles action. Sophomore Simon Kauppila (Chesterfield, Mo. / Marquette) and senior Rajan Vohra (Glen Head, N.Y./North Shore) opened the scoring without dropping a game at #3, 8-0. At #1, NCAA doubles tournament qualifiers Jeffrey Chen (Northfield, Ill./New Trier) and Adam Tzeng (Eagle, Idaho/Eagle) proved their mettle with an 8-3 victory. Senior Anupreeth Coramutla (Monroe Township, N.J./Phillips Andover) and junior Colt Tegtmeier (Madison, Wisc./James Madison Memorial) completed the sweep of the Wolverines with an 8-4 win.
In singles action, the Judges got off to a quick start, winning five of six first sets and dropping just one or two games in four of those. Tzeng completed a 2-0 afternoon with a 6-1, 6-0, victory over GCC's Karsten Lagerquist at #2. The clinching point came at #4, where rookie Dylan Walters (Baltimore, Md./Gilman School) finished off the Wolverine's Michael Odrey, 6-2, 6-1, just before Kauppila was able to win his match at #3, which stood at 6-1, 5-2.
This win marked the first ever team victory for Brandeis in the NCAA tournament. The Judges dropped a 5-4 decision to Pomona-Pitzer in 1989, when they were the first-ever team from New England selected to the NCAA Division III tournament.
