The College's men's tennis players believe they gained valuable experience at the ITA Regional Tournament in Willingboro, N.J., over the weekend.
This inexperienced squad brought six players to the tournament at Miller Creek Park Tennis Club on Friday, four of those being freshmen. The highlight of the tournament for the Lions was the play of junior Jeremy Eckardt, who was seeded third overall in the singles bracket. Eckardt was defeated in the quarterfinals by freshman Patrick Wittner of New York University, 6-1, 6-1.
Eckardt and sophomore doubles partner Jonathan Yu advanced to the second round of the doubles tournament before falling to Ithaca College's tandem junior Taylor Borda and sophomore Josh Rifkin, 8-3.
"The ITA tournament gave us a foundation our team can build upon," Yu said. "The tournament showed each of us how we were playing currently and what we needed to work on in the offseason."
Freshmen twin brother doubles partners Steve and Stewart Fernandez also advanced to the second round before losing to sophomore Julian Oribe and freshman Michael ?apozzi of Manhattanville, 8-6.
