CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Brandeis University men's tennis team went down to the wire, but couldn't hang on in the quarterfinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III Indoor Championships today, falling to Trinity (Texas), 5-4. The Judges fall to 3-1 with the loss, while the Tigers improve to 6-1.
Brandeis started off by taking two of three doubles points. The #2 (Colin Fox and Dylan Walters) and #3 (Hunter Levine and Colt Tegtmeier) tandems rolled, 8-1, but All-American seniors Jeffrey Chen (Northfield, Ill./New Trier) and Adam Tzeng (Eagle, Idaho/Eagle), ranked 17th in Division III, could not hold off the #2-ranked team of Christian Settles and Hao Nguyen, falling 8-3.
In single action, senior Colt Tegtmeier (Madison, Wisc./James Madison Memorial) made it a 2-0 day with a 6-4, 6-3, win at #5. Tegtmeier won the final six games of the second set. Trinity made it 3-2 when Nguyen – ranked 29th in Division III singles – defeated Chen, 6-2, 6-0, at #2. First-year Colin Fox (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) also improved to 2-0 on the day with a 6-2, 7-5 win at #3 singles. Fox, ranked 46th nationally, defeated #30 Alessio Azzalini.
Trinity then rallied at #1, where seventh-ranked Cameron Krimbill defeated Tzeng, 6-4, 6-3. The Tigers' Connor Whittington edged junior Hunter Levine (Weston, Fla./Cypress Bay) at #6, 6-3, 7-5. The deciding match came at #4, where 40th-ranked Settles played a tight match with sophomore Dylan Walters (Baltimore, Md./Gilman School). Settles won the first four games of the first set, but Walters won the next four to even things up. Settles earned a break in the 11th game to take a 7-5 decision. In the second set, Walters had an early break to take a 3-1 lead, but Settles broke back immediately to get things back on serve. The Tiger player earned another break in ninth game of the set, then held to clinch the match, 6-4.
Brandeis, the fifth seed in the tournament, will meet eighth-seeded Gustavus Adolphus tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the consolation semifinals. On Sunday, they will meet either Emory or Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 8 a.m. in either the fifth- or seventh-place match.