COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus men's tennis team came within points of taking two out of three doubles matches on Saturday. However, the Bears' top-two doubles teams fell just short and the team lost 9-0 to No. 20 Johns Hopkins.
Saturday was also senior day for the Bears. The men's tennis program honored seniors Mason Groff, Matt Fontanese, and Kyle Bookman. Groff and Fontanese have been staples of the men's tennis program throughout their four years. The two have each won 61 matches and have been doubles partners for the majority of the last three years. The two have won 23 matches together as a doubles tandem and enjoyed a run to the ITA quarterfinals last year together.
Bookman has 25 career wins which included a career-high 14 during his sophomore year.
Groff and Fontanese sprinted out a big lead at number one doubles on Saturday afternoon. The duo were nearly flawless in the opening stages of the match. A big serve into the body from Fontanese put the number one pair ahead 5-1.
Johns Hopkins climbed back, but Groff and Fontanese still led 7-4 and had two chances on their serve to close out the match. However, the pair were unable to cross the finish line, coming within points of winning. The Blue Jays fought to force a tiebreaker and then took the tiebreaker 7-1 as the Bears fell at the number one spot, 8-7 (1).
Lars Jespersen and Will Oberholtzer also played a tightly contested match at number two doubles. The freshmen pair went shot for shot at the number two spot and also came within points of taking their match. However, Johns Hopkins forced another tiebreaker and came out ahead 8-7 (1).
After a pair of close losses in doubles, the Bears headed into singles trailing 3-0. Ursinus lost all six singles matches in straight sets. Jesperson and Darby Rodgers won the most games in their matches, losing 6-2, 6-2.
At number one, Groff managed to win a pair of games against the ITA's No. 9 ranked singles player in Division III, Vishnu Joshi, 6-1, 6-1.
The Bears close out their season next weekend at McDaniel.