Crazy Day For Men’s Tennis Ends In Quarterfinal Loss To Duquesne

ST. LOUIS – An extremely eventful day for the 5th-seeded men's tennis team in which it played two Atlantic 10 Championship matches in two different states ended late Friday night with a loss in the quarterfinals to 4th-seeded Duquesne, 4-1, after defeating 12th-seeded Fordham earlier in the day, 4-0.

Originally scheduled to face Fordham at 8 a.m. Central time on the outdoor Dwight Davis Tennis Center courts in downtown St. Louis, the Bonnies had their match postponed until 12:15 p.m. due to rain. However, because of the weather, the match was moved indoors to Kings Point Tennis Center in Belleville, Ill., roughly 30 minutes away.

Once there, the Bonnies wasted little time in ramming the Rams into the consolation bracket in a straight-set victory.

Wearing the Brown and White for the last time this weekend, seniors Enric Larregola and Mikhail Sudakov opened the doubles portion with an 8-1 victory, which fellow senior Chris Post and sophomore Elliot Fanshel then followed with another win, 8-6. The decision gave the Bonnies the doubles point, and they carried the momentum into singles where they dominated the Rams.

Sudakov set the tone out of the No. 3 singles slot with a commanding straight-sets win, 6-0, 6-0. Fanshel equaled Sudakov's effort as he also did not allow his opponent, Andriy Kulak, to win a single game in another 6-0, 6-0 Bona victory. Luis Guevara then finished Fordham off with a 6-1, 6-0 win out of the No. 6 position. At that point, all three other matches that the Bonnies were leading in were not finished as they had already won the four points necessary to advance.

With a first-round victory in Illinois behind them, the Bonnies hit the road again and crossed back over the Mississippi River, making a 40-minute trek to the Sunset Tennis Center in Sappington, Mo. for their quarterfinal matchup at 7 p.m. local time against Duquesne.

Unfortunately for the Bonnies, they couldn't carry the momentum of their victory over to their match with the Dukes even after jumping out to a fast start by claiming the doubles point.

Post and Fanshel once again teamed up and picked up an 8-5 victory at No. 1 doubles, and Larregola and Sudakov partnered to a mirror 8-5 victory playing out of the No. 2 position to give the Bonnies a 1-0 lead heading into the singles competition.

But that's where the Dukes rattled off four straight wins – all in straight sets – to pick up four points en route to the victory which propelled them into the semifinals.

The loss against the Dukes knocks the Bonnies into the consolation portion of the bracket, where they will meet 8th-seeded Saint Joseph's on Saturday at 11 a.m. local time. The match is scheduled to played at Dwight Davis Tennis Center, weather permitting. The Hawks – who St. Bonaventure defeated 6-1 just a few weeks ago – fell in straight sets, 4-0, to the overall No. 1 seed George Washington in the quarterfinals on Friday evening.

With a win against Saint Joseph's, St. Bonaventure advances to the 5th-place match on Sunday morning at 8 local time. A loss against Saint Joe's results in the Bonnies playing in the 7th-place match, also scheduled for Sunday morning at 8.