FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Following a fall campaign highlighted by multiple ITA Super Regional berths for the Fairfield University men's tennis team, the Stags will head back onto the courts this weekend for a pair of matches to kick off the spring championship season.
The non-conference slate opens this Saturday, Jan. 28 when the squad heads to New Haven to take on Yale, followed by a trip to West Point, N.Y. the following day to take on Army. Opening serve against the Bulldogs is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Saturday with live coverage available to stream on ESPN+ and Sunday's contest against the Golden Knights is slated for 4:00 p.m.
FAIRFIELD FAST FIVE
- The Stags will open the Spring campaign on the same courts they wrapped up the fall on, back when Yale hosted the Connecticut State Championships in Late October
- Every player who has seen at least four rounds of singles action in the fall walked away with at least two victories.
- Five Stags in singles play and seven in doubles action will enter 2023 riding at least a one-match winning streak from the fall.
- Both of this weekend's opponents will host another match the morning prior to their respective matchups with the Stags.
- A win over the Bulldogs would mark the eighth consecutive season that the Stags have opened head-to-head play with a win, having not lost since a 7-0 defeat against NJIT on Jan. 30, 2015
STAGS STATLINES
Overall, Fairfield amassed a 41-40 record in singles play in the fall, but dominated in doubles action, helped in part by the success at ITA's to end the fall 29-17 (.630). Will O'Brien will lead the Stags into singles action when the season gets rolling this weekend after pacing the squad with a 7-2 record in the fall, and he will enter the spring riding a three-match win streak.
At an even 6-6 on the year Sam Hodges has garnered the second most victories in solo action, followed by Griffin Schlesinger who stands as the only undefeated player for the team at a perfect 5-0 this season. Amongst the trio of newcomers for the Stags this season, Kostas Kollias leads that group with four singles wins, followed by three from Alex Aguiar and a pair from Sumer.
In doubles action, Jonathan Olive-Blanco and Keean Shah lead Fairfield into spring competition tied for the team lead in victories at a perfect 7-0, joined atop the squad's standings by the pairing of Gore and Sumer who have nabbed seven wins in their first nine matches as a partnership. Overall, Sumer and Olive-Blanco lead the Stags with a total of eight wins apeice in doubles action, followed by both O'Brien and Gore with seven apiece, and Kollias with six.
SCOUTING THE YALE BULLDOGS
Despite Saturday also being the season opener for the Bulldogs, the afternoon matchup with the Stags will serve as game two on the Elis' 19-match spring calendar, as they will host Binghamton earlier in the day.
Leading Yale into the spring is Vignesh Gogineni who won the Duke Bonk Invitational in his first collegiate tournament, to cap a 6-1 weekend for the rookie. The Bulldogs also sent a pair of players to ITA Super Regionals in the singles bracket in Walker Oberg and Aiden Reilly, with three others reaching the final day of competition. Michael Sun and Theo Dean also qualified for Yale on the doubles side.
SCOUTING THE ARMY-WEST POINT GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Army will enter the weekend with three games under its belt already, having dropped the season opener against North Dakota last Saturday, before back-to-back wins over Colgate later that day, and Rider the following afternoon. This Saturday the Golden Knights will play another doubleheader, hosting Sacred Heart in the morning at 10:00 am, before taking on the Stags later in the day, bringing them to the midway point of a 10-game homestand for the team to open the spring.
With a 6-3 record in singles play last fall Samuel Eden looks to serve as one of the top threats for Army this season, as well as both Daniel Zhou and Samuel Haikal who combine for an 8-3 record in singles action. In doubles it's Samuel and Vishnu Bodavula leading the team with a 5-4 record, while as a team, the Golden Knights stand at 36-36 in singles after the fall, and 18-16 in doubles contests.
RUNNING THROUGH REGIONALS
The fall of 2022 saw the Fairfield men's tennis squad compete in four tournaments including hosting the Fairfield Invite in late September, and traveling to weekend tournaments at Navy, Lehigh, and Yale. In addition, seven Stags were invited to ITA Regionals Oct. 7-10 hosted by Army West Point, with four of those players rallying their way through the weekend in the doubles round to advance to the ITA Super Regionals, marking the first time in the history of Fairfield men's tennis that multiple teams have advanced in a single year.
Graduate Kaya Gore and graduate transfer Tolunay Sumer made up the first tandem to move on, with junior Keean Shah and senior Jonathan Olive-Blanco teaming up as the other doubles squad, highlighting a weekend that saw all seven Stags that competed in the invitational garner at least one victory.
"I'm extremely proud of how all of the guys competed this weekend," said Head Coach Jeff Bricker after the win. "All seven players that were invited had impactful wins and played at a very high level, and to have two teams qualify for Super Regional is an amazing result."
SURVEYING THE SPRING
This weekend marks the start of a 20-match spring schedule for Fairfield men's tennis, that will feature 14 opponents on the non-league side of the calendar, representing nine different conferences, before the six game MAAC season to set the field for the 2023 MAAC Tennis Championships at Mercer County Tennis Center in West Windsor, N.J.
The Stags will debut with three matches on the road before heading to the Tennis Club of Trumbull (TCT) for their first game as the host school when they take on Lafayette on Feb. 11. From there Fairfield will head out to Rhode Island to take on Ivy League foe Brown, before a pair of matches down in Georgia Feb. 24-25 when they take on Kennesaw State and Mercer. Returning north for their next two matches, the squad will head to Merrimack on Mar. 3 prior to hosting Sacred Heart at the TCT on Mar. 8.
Men's tennis will then head back down south, this time to Orlando, Fla. for three matches over spring break where they will take on IUPUI, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Marquette. When they return home, the Stags will play four of their next five at the WAC Tennis Courts, hosting Stonehill (Mar. 19) and Monmouth (Mar. 25) to close the non-conference side of the schedule, before turning around and opening the MAAC side of the calendar the following day at Rider.
After opening the conference slate against the Broncs, Fairfield returns home Apr. 1-2 to host Siena and Mount St. Mary's before making the long trip up to Niagara Falls, N.Y. to take on Niagara. Returning home on Apr. 11 to take on Marist, before heading out to Hamden, Conn. on Apr. 13 to take on Quinnipiac.
DOWN THE ROAD
After the pair of opening weekend matches, the Stags will have a nearly a full week before they return to action Saturday, Feb. 5 with a trip to The Bronx, N.Y. for a meeting with Fordham. Opening serve between the Stags and the Rams is slated for 4:00 p.m. from the Hawthorn/Rooney Tennis Courts.
