Men's tennis banged up at Yale

The men's and women's tennis teams took to the road this weekend with mixed results. While the men invaded the Yale Invitational in New Haven, Conn., the women split between the William & Mary Invitational in Williamsburg, Va., and the Ciccie Leary Invitational at Penn.

After coming off an intense tournament the previous weekend at Princeton, the men were plagued by injuries.

Though head coach Glenn Michibata wasn't satisfied with his team's weekend results, he's not worried. "There were a lot of guys who were banged up," Michibata said. "Our guys are playing extremely well right now."

In the "A" bracket, junior Darius Craton took advantage of a first-round bye to advance to the quarterfinals but lost in that round.

Sophomore Shannon Morales delivered one of the strongest performances for the men. Morales did not drop a set in his first three matches before falling to Columbia's Jared Drucker in the finals of the men's "C" singles bracket.

"[Shannon's] been one of our more consistent players all year," said Michibata. "He should have won the tournament."

Sophomore Sratha Saengsuwarn had a strong showing in his first-round match against Darmouth's Steve McGaughey and advanced in straight sets.

In the second round he faced Columbia's top player, Akshay Rao. With Saengsuwarn down 5-4 after trading the first nine games on serve with Rao, Saengsuwarn was broken in the tenth and decisive game of the first set.

"I lost my concentration for like thirty seconds," Saengsuwarn said. "and [the set] was gone."

In "B" singles action, Andrew Lieu and Hans Plukas both advanced to the second round.

Michibita does not doubt the team's ability, though, despite the poor showing. He admitted there were some guys who probably could have fought through the injuries, but he did not want any problems to become worse for next weekend's tournament at the National Tennis Center.

"This [National Tennis Center Invitational] is the one we're trying to peak for."

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On the women's side, Alison Hashmail teamed up with freshman Natalie Arcario and advanced to the second round of the doubles bracket at in the Ciccie Leary Invitational. In singles, Arcario got through opponents from Penn and Columbia in the consolation bracket, but fell in three sets in the consolation final. The doubles team of Stephanie Berg and Laura Trimble also found early success before falling in the second round to a duo from Harvard.

Joanna Roth turned out a stellar performance at the William & Mary Invitational, winning in straight sets until dropping the decisive set, 6-3, in the semifinals.

Freshman Christine Kansky displayed some early talent. After falling to the "C" bracket's No. 3 seed, Duke's Parker Goyer, Kansky came up strong in the consolation bracket with a three-set win over Bethany James of Virginia Tech. She then lost 7-6, 6-3 in the consolation final to Agustine Arechavaleta of N.C. State.