Men’s Tennis Gets a Needed Conference Win

By Jimmy Cassidy

The men’s tennis team at the Catholic University of America was on a forgettable streak of four straight lost matches coming into their match against the University of Scranton Royals on Sunday, April 10th. The spring campaign for the Cardinals has been rough to say the least — the squad was looking for its first victory since their win over Hood College on October 5th, 2015. Not a typo.

The streak came to an end in an important Landmark Conference matchup against the Royals of the Electric City.

Catholic beat Scranton by a tight score of 5-4 at home on the Down Family Courts at the DuFour Center. The win moves CUA’s Landmark conference record to 1-2 and up to a 4-6 overall mark on the year. The Royals fall to 0-2 in conference and 3-8 overall.

The match started with doubles, and the number one pair got the team off to the start they needed. Junior Juan Lorido and senior Rocky Alhaqbani teamed up to knock off Scranton’s first doubles pair, 8-6. The Cards then fell in the remaining two doubles matches to fall behind 1-2 before the singles matches began. The team would need four wins out of the six singles matches to come out on top.

Lorido again performed to get his squad back into the match with his second win of the day, 6-3, 6-1. Alhaqbani followed suit with a singles win of his own. He took down Scranton’s number four 6-2, 7-6, 6-1.

Sophomore Jan Lasota took number two singles, 6-1, 7-6, taking the deciding point, 7-5. Classmate Matthew Holtschneider was also victorious at number three singles, winning 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. The team got the five match wins they needed and beat the Royals of Scranton, 5-4.

The team had an important stretch of matches before the playoffs began. After the first win in a long time, CUA hopes the momentum can build. Sophomore Rob Alexander described what was key for him to stringing together a few consecutive victories.

“Arguably the most important thing is for us to get off to a good start in doubles,” Alexander said. “Our singles lineup is as strong as any other team in the conference, and if we come out of doubles with even a 2-1 lead, we have all the confidence in the world that we can wrap things up in singles.”

Four consecutive conference matchups await the Cards in the month of April, and the results of these will decide the team’s playoff fate. The top four teams of the Landmark Conference will move on to a conference playoff tournament to decide a champion, and CUA has some work to do. Catholic sits at #6 out of 9 teams with their 1-2 record, but the rest of the conference is not out of reach to overcome in the standings.

“Sitting at 1-2 with one of those losses being from the #1 seed, we’re still very much in the hunt for the playoffs,” Holtschneider said. “We’ve got to take care of business in our upcoming matches against typically lower seeded teams.”

Besides the undefeated Goucher College, atop the Landmark at 6-0, Catholic is within 2 wins of all the competition. A trio teams have a 2-1 record, and another has a 2-2 mark. CUA will take on three of those opponents in their next three matches, a crucial stretch for the success of the spring season.
Next on the schedule for the Cardinals is Elizabethtown College. The team will travel to Pennsylvania to take on the Blue Jays on Saturday, April 16th, at 1 PM.

Holtschneider believes CUA can make some noise in the Landmark playoffs if they can get in.

“If we do that, we will clinch the 4th spot in the playoffs, and anything can happen, especially if we’re hot,” Holtschneider said.

The Catholic University of America women’s tennis team earned three victories over Scranton on Sunday afternoon on the the Dowd Family Courts, but the Royals picked up six wins to secure the victory.

The Cardinals picked up all their wins in singles competition as they took the number three, four and six matches.

The women’s team will also face Elizabethtown College on Saturday the 16th for a 1 PM match.