Dan Gelfand/The Hoya The men’s tennis team got as far as the final round of the consolation bracket at the Old Point Championships. Georgetown wraps up its fall season in two weeks with the ITA Indoor Championships.
With the end of the season approaching, the Hoyas faced some of their toughest opponents yet at a pair of tournaments this weekend. The team sent two players to New York and the rest of the team to Virginia, but wins were hard to come by at both venues and Georgetown could only get as far as the quarterfinal round in either competition.
Traveling to Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., for the Omni Hotels ITA Northeast Regional Championships, senior Dennis Cravedi, the team’s No. 1 singles player, and junior Erik Bildman faced players from the top 33 schools from the East Coast in what is considered one of the top tournaments of the fall.
Against hard-hitting freshman Dan Hanegby of Binghamton University, Cravedi was eliminated in the first round from the 96-man singles draw, 6-0, 6-2.
In doubles, Cravedi and Bildman fared better, defeating the team of junior Erez Cohen and freshman Zoltan Bus of Manhattan College, 8-5, in the first round. The duo succumbed to the 16th-ranked team of Army seniors John Sabia and Rafael Albornoz, 8-3.
“Those were grinding matches,” head coach Rich Bausch said of Cravedi and Bildman’s singles matches in the back draw. “They were long matches because the opponents were more in line with our level. Plus, they were played outdoors in breezy 50-degree weather. By the time Dennis was finishing his second match, it was dark and in the 40s.”
While Cravedi and Bildman battled in New York, the remainder of the team competed in the Old Point National Bank Championships at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.
The top performer for the Hoyas on the weekend was freshman Kevin Killeavy. After dropping his opening match of Flight C-2 Singles to Campbell University sophomore Ryan Mills (6-2, 6-1), Killeavy picked up three wins and reached the consolation bracket finals before ultimately being defeated by sophomore Ryan Goldsmith of Richmond for the title, 8-3.
Freshman Eddie Carver also picked up a win in the tournament, defeating Jason Harris of American University (6-2, 7-5) in a close match in the C-1 Singles flight. Carver eventually lost to senior artin Parkes of Campbell University in a hard fought quarterfinals match, winning the first set 6-4 before dropping the next two sets.
Junior Ryan Peisel put up a strong showing, despite losing a close first round match in the Flight B Singles to sophomore Will Shaw of N.C. State, 6-2, 7-6 (5). Peisel advanced to the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket by defeating Richmond sophomore Josh Ditman 8-4.
In the same bracket, freshman Scott Faust secured two wins, moving on to the consolation semifinals with wins over freshman Nate Grover of Old Dominion and senior Andreas Kulcsar of American.
In the tournament, the Hoyas earned just one doubles win. Faust and Killeavy, who have played as a team all season, were able to pick up the win over sophomore Stephan Dufils and Oleg Sirghii of George Mason in Flight B Doubles.
The men’s tennis team has only one more tournament this fall, a November 6-9 trip to the ITA Indoor Championships in Ithaca, N.Y.
