Box Score 1 BRUNSWICK, Me. & FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Wesleyan men's tennis team opened their 2021-22 season with a busy weekend of competition, first at the ITA Regionals in Maine and capped with a dual match victory over Quinnipiac on Sunday. Two Cardinal individuals and doubles teams made it to round of 16 of their respective flight before being knocked out of competition. In the Sunday dual match, Wesleyan defeated the Bobcats, 5-2, in a match played at Fairfield University.

Peter Anker '22 and Andrew Finkelman '22 won a pair of singles matches in ITA Regional competition, both advancing to the round of 16. Anker began with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Richter Jordann of Amherst before sweeping Josh Anshuetz of Wheaton in the round of 32. Anker's singles run ended in a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Damien Ruparel of Amherst. Finkelman opened the tournament, breezing by Willie Turchetta of Amherst, 6-3, 6-2. He then had to fight through a pair of close tiebreak wins to topple Ethan Bradley of Bowdoin 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) to earn a spot in the round of 16. His singles tournament came to an end in that round of 16 match to Rishabh Sarda of Tufts, 6-2, 6-0. Noah Lilienthal '22 won a round of 64 match over Myles Decoste of Coast Guard 6-1, 6-2 before dropping a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 decision to Robby Ward of Middlebury in the round of 32.

In doubles action, Finkelman teamed with Zach Lieb '22 while Noah Lilienthal '22 and Ben Mitchell '24 combined as both Cardinal teams advanced to the round of 16. Finkelman/Lieb defeated Julius Lowman/Jan Ullmann of Colby-Sawyer 8-5 before bowing out with an 8-1 loss to Josh Belandres/Derin Acaroglu of Tufts. Lilienthal/Mitchell won an 8-4 decision over Nikesh Desai/Nick Forester of Bates in the round of 32 before dropping their next match to Isaac Gorelik/Paris Pentousis of Tufts 8-7 (9-7) in a crushing tiebreak defeat. Anker and Harry Portnoy '24 also competed in doubles action, defeating Matthew Danielson/Paul Zhou of Bates 8-0 in the first round before losing in a tight match to Colin Fox/Colt Tegtmeier of Brandeis 8-7 (8-6).

In the Sunday dual match with Quinnipiac, Wesleyan was able to bounce back from defeats in the ITA Regionals the previous day to earn a 5-2 win over the Bobcats. Wesleyan took the doubles point via wins at #2 from Lieb/Portnoy (6-3 over Arakaki/Karagozoglu) and #3 from Clay Gaieski '23/Max Lustgarten '25 (6-2 over Magalit/Schaeffer). That doubles win is the first collegiate win for Lustgarten.

Taking a 1-0 lead into singles, Wesleyan took four of the six matches to secure five points and the match win. Lilienthal dominated Casasolas Monllor 6-1, 6-3 at #1 singles while Mitchell won 6-1, 6-1 at #4, Portnoy defeated Laskin at #5 6-0, 6-1 and Lustgarten tallied his second win of the day in a 6-0, 6-2 win over Clark Davis at #6.

Dual Match Results vs. Quinnipiac

• Doubles
  • #1 Casasolas Monllor/Sood (QU) def. Lilienthal/Mitchell (WES) 6-1
  • #2 Lieb/Portnoy (WES) def. Arakaki/Karagozoglu (QU) 6-3
  • #3 Gaieski/Lustgarten (WES) def. Magalit/Schaeffer (QU) 6-2
• Singles
  • #1 Lilienthal (WES) def. Casasolas Monllor (QU) 6-1, 6-3
  • #2 Arakaki (QU) def. Anker (WES) 6-2, 6-0
  • #3 Magalit (QU) def. Lieb (WES) 6-0, 7-6 (7-3)
  • #4 Mitchell (WES) def. Schick (QU) 6-1, 6-1
  • #5 Portnoy (WES) def. Laskin (QU) 6-0, 6-1
  • #6 Lustgarten (WES) def. Davis (QU) 6-0, 6-2

Wesleyan enjoys a pair of weeks without competition before hosting the Wesleyan Invitational on Oct. 16-17 from the John Wood Memorial Tennis Courts.