NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Semifinals appearances in both singles and doubles for Brad Orban highlighted the first fall weekend of play for the Fairfield University men's tennis team. Orban reached the semifinals of the 'A' singles draw and then paired with Dylan Appel for a run to the semifinals in the 'A' doubles bracket at the Connecticut State Championships.
Orban won a total of three singles matches at Yale's Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center this weekend. He upended Marist's Paulo Siracusa (6-2, 6-0), Samuel Beren of Harvard (6-1, 6-3) and Yale's Photos Photiades (6-4, 4-6, 10-4) on his climb to the semifinals. The Stags' sophomore was topped (6-2, 6-0) in the final four by Rudolf Kurz of Marist, who went on to win the bracket.
In the 'B' singles draw, Anthony Caputo, Peter Colliard and Luke Lemieux all won their opening contests to advance to the second round. Colliard went one step further with a victory over Connecticut's Hank Hill (6-1, 5-7, 10-5) before falling to Quinnipiac's Willem van Biezen (6-1, 6-1) in the quarterfinals. The Bobcats' sophomore would reach of the final round of the draw.
Caputo and Jeffrey Rodgers each added two more singles victories in the consolation rounds, while Lemieux, Gabriel Pamich and Ofir Solomon all nabbed one singles win.
In doubles action, Orban and Appel topped Sacred Heart's Matt Dean and Brian Power (6-4) and Quinnipiac's Kei Ezaka and Ryoma Haraguchi (7-5) to qualify for the semifinals. In that round, the Stags' duo was on the short side of a 7-5 decision to the eventual winners, Photiades and Charlie Adams of Yale.
Rodgers and Solomon also advanced in the 'A' doubles bracket, besting Marist's Siracusa and Justin Chanthalangsy (6-4) before bowing out in the quarterfinals to William Drumwright and Bryan Einstoss of Hartford (6-4), who reached the finals of the draw.
In the 'B' bracket, Lemieux and Caputo bested Hartford's duo of Nicholas Sharwarko and Juan Molina before a quarterfinal round loss to Hill and Zac McEntee from Connecticut.
Up next for the Stags is the first dual of the fall with a trip to Hartford on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
