St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Yale
St. John's Concludes Play At ECAC Team Championships
2/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 20, 2011
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The 10th-seeded St. John's men's tennis team concluded play at the ECAC Men's Indoor Tennis Championships on Sunday morning with a 5-2 win over Yale University at Harvard's Murr Tennis Center. The consolation match wrapped up the 10-team tournament for the Red Storm, who finished with a 2-1 record, its best ever at the annual event.
With the win, the Red Storm improves to 3-1 on the season, including two wins over Ivy League opponents. St. John's sophomore Matty Najfled and senior Pavel Cerny both remain unbeaten in singles play with 4-0 and 2-0 records, respectively.
On Saturday, Princeton University (4-1), the tournament's No. 2 seed and the 74th-ranked team in the nation, dropped the Red Storm to the consolation bracket with a 6-1 win.
The Tigers took two of three doubles matches and five of six singles points to advance to the semifinals. Najfeld picked up the lone singles win for STJ in the No. 6 spot 0-6, 6-4, 7-5 to improve to 3-0 on the season. Junior Milo Hauk and Gustav Kallen won their doubles match in the No. 2 position by an 8-5 margin.
Back on the court early Sunday morning for a match against sixth-seeded Yale, the Red Storm rested a couple crucial players including its usual No. 1 Stefan Bojic.
Despite being shorthanded, Cerny and sophomore Mike Lampa opened play with an 8-2 win at No. 3 doubles. The Bulldogs (2-4) chose to split up the nation's 78th-ranked doubles duo of Daniel Hoffman and Marc Powers, and Najfeld and senior Asaf Honig made them pay with a win at the No. 1 spot, giving STJ the early 1-0 lead over the Ivy Leaguers.
Powers and Hoffman would pick up wins for Yale in the No. 1 and 2 singles positions, but St. John's won the remaining four singles slots to defeat the Bulldogs 5-2. Najfeld improved to 4-0 on the season with a 6-2, 6-4 win in the No. 4 spot and Cerny improved to 2-0 with a win in the No. 5 flight. Kallen and newcomer Mischa Koran also picked up wins for STJ. It was Koran's first singles win at St. John's.
The top four seeds, Cornell, Princeton, Binghamton and host Harvard all still remain in the field.
The Red Storm returns to play on Saturday, Feb. 26 when it hosts nationally-ranked Binghamton at Noon at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center. The 67th-ranked Bearcats defeated STJ 5-0 in the 2010.
Players Mentioned
