Andreas Jeninga/The Hoya Senior Dennis Cravedi fought his way back from a 4-1 deficit to win his singles match 6-4, 6-2 Sunday.
After a rough spell last week, the Georgetown men’s and women’s tennis teams were determined to change their fortunes this weekend. The men succeeded, rebounding from last week’s two shutout losses to split their weekend matches, defeating Duquesne on Sunday 6-1 and falling to Boston College on Saturday 4-3. The women were not as productive, however, dropping both their matches this weekend to Virginia Tech and Rutgers in shutouts.
At home all weekend, the men’s Saturday match against Boston College was scheduled to begin at noon, but rain kept the players off the court until 3 p.m. The rain delay did not seem to hurt the Hoyas, who came out strong, easily winning the team point for doubles. At No. 2 doubles the freshmen duo of Scott Faust and Kevin Killeavy downed their Eagle opponents 8-1 and Georgetown’s No. 3 doubles team of sophomore Eric Conrad and freshman Eddie Carver shut out their B.C. opponents 8-0.
With the dominant showing in doubles, the Hoyas looked to take that momentum into singles, but the Eagles would not fold that easily. Boston College battled back into the match and won four of the singles matches to take the overall win on the day 4-3.
“We started off hot in doubles, but it didn’t carry over,” junior Erik Bildman said.
Bildman picked up one of the Hoyas singles wins, handily defeating B.C. senior Paul Colahan at the No. 5 position, 6-4, 6-0. Killeavy won the other singles match for Georgetown 7-5, 6-4.
“There’s no worse loss than to be real close and not to get it,” Head Coach Rich Bausch said.
The Hoyas did not have time to dwell on the loss however. On Sunday morning Georgetown had to turn around and immediately face Duquesne.
“The best way to put a loss behind you,” Bausch said, “is to find a way to win,” which the men did, taking down the Dukes 6-1.
The Hoyas again took the doubles competition on wins from the No. 2 and 3 teams. Conrad and Carver won their match quickly, 8-1, followed by Killeavy and Faust, who won 8-4.
With one point already secured Georgetown moved onto singles where it continued its solid play. Senior Dennis Cravedi, at No. 1 singles, battled back after being 4-1 in the first set to win his match 6-4, 6-2. Killeavy, at No. 3 singles, also had to fight his way back into his match. After dropping the first set 7-5 to Duquesne sophomore Robert Ojeda, Killeavy rebounded to take the next set 7-5 and ultimately won the third set 11-9.
Faust, Carver and Bildman all also won their singles matches and the Hoyas won the overall match 6-1.
“We took it to them,” Bildman said. “It’s easy to let a not great team into a match, but we didn’t do that.”
The Duquesne match was a solid win for Georgetown, but the Boston College match was a crucial loss for the Hoyas who are still looking to keep hopes of a Big East tournament berth alive. Georgetown is currently 1-3 in the conference, so this weekend’s matches against Connecticut and St. John’s have become must-wins. After traveling to UMBC for a makeup match on Wednesday, the Hoyas will play host to the Huskies at 12 p.m. on Saturday and the Red Storm on Sunday on the McDonough Courts.
The women did not have as good a weekend as the men. In Blacksburg, Va., for the weekend, the women were shut out by both Virginia Tech and Rutgers in Big East play.
The women faced No. 61 Virginia Tech on Saturday and were never in the match. The Hokies dominated the play, sweeping the doubles competition before easily handling the Hoyas in singles.
On Sunday the women did not fare much better. The Scarlet Knights also swept the doubles competition and won all but one of the singles matches in straight sets. Freshman Sana Malouf won the first set of her singles match 7-6, but her opponent, Rutgers’ sophomore Alina Balasa, battled back to win the next two sets and the match 6-3, 10-7. That was as close as the Hoyas could get to a win all weekend.
The women look to change their fortunes this week. On Wednesday they will travel to UMBC with the men for the rescheduled match before playing host to Connecticut on Saturday at 12 p.m. in conference play.
