The AU Men's Tennis team swatted Navy into the ground on the Eagles' senior day Saturday, sweeping the Midshipmen 7-0.
It was a proper sendoff for AU's five seniors, who have yet to lose a Patriot League team tournament in their careers. More importantly, it kept alive AU's chances of winning the regular season Patriot League title and hosting the PL tournament in two weekends from now.
The Eagles sit at 4-1 in the PL, half a game behind Colgate, which beat AU last weekend and lost to Army Saturday, and Army, which AU beat two weekends ago.
Of all the seniors honored Saturday, Tushar Garg stole the spotlight. Garg extended his singles winning streak to eight matches with a straight-set win over Navy's Stanley Kahl. Garg, playing as the one seed for the first time this PL season, quickly seized the first set, 6-2, before hanging on to a rollercoaster 7-6 second-set win.
"It felt very comfortable," Garg said of returning to the one seed. "You play down in a couple spots to work on your game, so when you get the chance to come back, you're ready. I just felt comfortable and confident."
After a brisk first set, Garg sprang to a 5-0 second-set lead and looked to serve out the set in the next game. But Kahl broke Garg's serve three straight times and held his serve, forcing Garg to hold serve in the final game just to reach a tiebreak. Garg pulled ahead 4-2 in the tiebreak and never trailed after.
"I think at five-love, I let emotions get in the way. I got caught up in the whole senior day, in the emotion and all of that," Garg said. "But I just went back to my game plan."
Garg and fellow senior Andreas Kulscar also impressed in their first-seed doubles victory, an 8-4 pro set win over Navy's Nathan Malnati and Ryan Osgood. Shortly after, senior Guillaume Tarralle and sophomore Juancarlo Vazquez wrapped up their pro set, winning the second-seed doubles, 8-6, securing AU's first doubles point. Seniors Jonah Fliegelman and Ruben Rivero dropped their doubles pro set, 8-6, after the other two were already decided.
Fliegelman was the only Eagle to drop a set, in singles action, playing in the second seed against Brandon Carter. It marked the second straight time Fliegelman played in the top two seeds. He dropped the first set 3-6, before surging to win the next two, 6-3, 7-5.
In the third seed, Tarralle won, 6-4, 6-3, over Osgood; in the fourth, Vazquez cruised, 6-4, 6-2, past Davy Lee. In the fifth, Rivero topped Adrian Lai, 6-3, 6-3, and in the sixth, sophomore Sebastian Proisy made short work of Haley Dodson, 6-2, 6-0.
AU travels to Lafayette on Monday to close out its PL season. A win secures a three-way tie for first place. That tie would be broken based on the teams' margins of victory during the PL season, Garg said, which is why Fliegelman's singles match mattered, despite concluding long after the team match had been decided.
Garg and the rest of the Eagles still hope to host and believe the tournament site matters.
"We know how courts play, and our games are based around it," Garg said. "And when it comes time to draw on the emotion and on the fans, you just get on the court and say, 'This is my house, I'm not going to let it happen."
