CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Brandeis University men's tennis team rode momentum from a doubles sweep this evening to pull off an upset in their final match before the 2017 University Athletic Association tournament as the #34-ranked Judges (10-6) knocked off the #22 MIT Engineers (12-3), 7-2.
Brandeis (10-6) won its sixth-straight match in convincing fashion as the Judges won all three doubles matches. It was the team's first doubles sweep since April 2 and their fourth all season. Seniors Michael Arguello (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood) and Ryan Bunis (Cincinnati, Ohio/Groton-Dunstable, Mass.) were 8-4 winners at No. 1, while senior Brian Granoff (Miami, Fla./Gulliver Prep) and sophomore Jackson Kogan (Pacific Palisades, Calif./Windward School) won by the same score at No. 3. Sophomore Tyler Ng (Great Neck, N.Y./Great Neck South) and rookie David Aizenberg (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park) rounded out the sweep at No. 2 with an 8-5 win.
In singles action, MIT got on the board first with a pair of straight set wins. Sean Ko defeated Ng, 6-2, 6-3, to open the Engineers' scoring at No. 4, while Tyler Barr defeated Bunis, 6-4, 6-1, at No. 1 to get MIT within one point.
The next two matches went to three sets to decide things. At No. 2, Granoff met Alex Cauneac, who took the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-3). Granoff won the second, 6-4, then won the final set at love to make it 4-2 in favor of the Judges. The match was clinched at No. 3, where Arguello took the first set, 6-4, but MIT's Victor Cheng won the second, 6-3. Arguello looked to have the drop on Cheng in the third, going up 5-2, but the host rallied to win four in a row to take a 6-5 lead. Arguello halted the moment and forced a tiebreaker, which he won easily, 7-0, to clinch the victory for the Judges, their third in the last four meetings between the two teams.
Two Brandeis rookies won the final two matches to take the court, as Mitchell Ostrovsky (Brooklyn, N.Y./Leon M Goldstein) earned a 6-4, 4-6, 10-7 win at No. 5 and Benjamin Wolfe (Blue Bell, Pa./Wissahickon) took a 6-1, 6-4, decision at No. 6.
Brandeis is back in action on Friday morning for the UAA quarterfinals. One of seven ranked teams in the field, the Judges are seeded seventh and will meet second-seeded and sixth-ranked Washington University in the opening round. More information about the UAA tournament is available at http://athletics.cmu.edu/sports/mten/2016-17/UAA/index.
