SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's tennis team got its dual match and Liberty League schedules off to a strong start on Tuesday afternoon, sweeping Bard College by a 7-0 score at the Union Tennis Courts.
Seven players earned victories for Union (1-0, 1-0 Liberty League) on the afternoon, including five Garnet Chargers with wins in both singles and doubles play.
Union started the day with a sweep of the three doubles matches, dropping only a combined four games. Junior
Riichi Nagatake and sophomore
Reilly Fowles finished first with a 6-1 win at the third flight, followed soon after by seniors
Shreyas Kode and
Daniel Saxe winning at the second flight by the same score. Junior
Arhan Gupta and sophomore
Simon Philip completed the sweep with a 6-2 first-doubles victory.
The home team continued its dominance in singles competition, needing just a combined seven games over the minimum to finish off the win. Nagatake and Fowles started the run at fifth and sixth singles, respectively, posting identical 6-1, 6-0 victories over Blake Kendall and Ciaran Chamberlain. The clinching fourth point came from Saxe with a pair of 6-0 third-singles sets against Jackson Brent.
Senior
Solen Bellemare also had a clean sheet against Peter Trimble in second-singles action, while Kode needed just one extra game to beat Daniel Hsu in their fourth-flight matchup. Philip had the toughest battle at the top flight, but still was able to ease past Nick Oh for a 6-1, 6-3 win.
Union will be back on the courts this weekend at the ITA Northeast Regional Championships, held at Skidmore College beginning on Friday.
