Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Tennis: Georgetown Falters in Fall Finale

By Steve Harris Hoya Staff Writer

In the final competition of the fall for the men’s and women’s tennis teams, five Hoyas represented Georgetown at the ITA Regional Singles and Doubles Championships this past weekend, with the women playing at Harvard and the men at Princeton.

The five Hoyas who attended the meet were competing in a field of the top 96 singles players and top 64 doubles teams from the East. But no Georgetown players were able to advance beyond the second round despite strong efforts and will not be invited to the ITA National Collegiate Indoor Championships held in February.

Senior captain Missy Mendes turned in the Hoyas’ best performance of the women’s tournament. Mendes applied pressure at the net against Annamaria Juhasz of Central Connecticut State to achieve a 6-3, 6-2 first round victory. In the second round, Mendes was faced with a difficult challenge as she found herself matched up against Dartmouth’s Rebecca Dirksen, the 1998-1999 Ivy League Player of the Year. Mendes was unable to defeat Dirksen, falling 6-3, 6-3.

In the women’s doubles competition, the team of senior twin sisters Lucky and Sarada Ravindra represented Georgetown. In the first round, they cruised to an 8-2 victory over Pittsburgh’s Sarah Austin and Lindsay Carlson. But in the second round, the Ravindras ran into Virginia’s Tuchband and Williams and fell 8-3 despite a number of openings.

The Georgetown men sent sophomores Nick Sklavounos and Andre Benjamin to compete at Princeton. Sklavounos represented the Hoyas in the singles competition. In the first round Sklavounos started out strong against Penn State’s Matt Frakes, taking the first set to a tiebreak. However, he was unable to recover after dropping the first set in the tiebreak and ultimately went down 7-6, 6-1.

In doubles play, Sklavounos teamed up with Benjamin to face Farleigh Dickinson’s team of Kivanc Cubukcu and Alvaro Etcheberry. The Hoyas opened up a 3-0 lead but couldn’t hold on. Eventually tied at 8-8, the match went to a decisive tiebreak, which Georgetown lost 7-4.

With the fall season at an end, both teams will have time to reflect on a fairly successful start to the season. The women will take their 1-0 record and restart play on Jan. 30 by playing host to Missouri, while the men will try to build on their 2-2 record when they face Navy on Jan. 30.

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