Flushing, NY - The John Jay men's tennis team battled rain, sun and win on Wednesday afternoon in a CUNYAC battle against the Hunter Hawks.
The Bloodhounds found success in the top end of their doubles and singles rankings but ultimately fell to the Hawks, 3-6.
In doubles play, the Bloodhounds' top pairing (
Nikita Sadounichy/
Samir Ghimire) dispatched Hunter's Anil Sing and Raymond Leu with an 8-0 win. After dropping the third doubles match, it came down to AJ Esperanze and Deondre McKenzie in the second doubles spot.
The pair battled Tylor Wood and Sandro Schwyzer to 13 games, but ultimately dropped the final doubles point, 5-8.
Sadounichy made quick work of Hunter's Singh again in the first singles match, winning (6-0, 6-0) to tie the overall match at 2-2.
Across the walkway on Court 12, Esperanza battled the Hawks' Leu in a match hampered by upper-body pain for Esperanza. Leu scored the two-set win, winning 6-2, 6-1.
The Hawks scored another point in the fifth singles match, as Schwyzer defeated
Massimo Leandri, 6-2, 6-0
Both the third and fourth singles matches played close for the Bloodhounds. Ghimire stayed within a game of Ali Elshehawey for the entirety of their third singles match-up. The sophomore forced Elshehawey to a seventh game in the first set and later dropped the second set, 3-6, to give Hunter the third singles point.
McKenzie played a competitive two sets in the fourth singles slot with Hunter's Tyler Wood scoring a 6-3, 6-4 win.
The final individual match drew a crowd and a storm. Newcomer Barnaby battled back to force a tiebreaker with a 7-5 second set win, after dropping the first set to Ralph Go, 3-6. The sixth singles match was the final completed match, and teammates in blue and purple gathered around.
Barnaby got out to an early lead in the first-to-ten tiebreaker as dark clouds rolled overhead in Flushing. The two battled into the rain momentarily, but the match was ultimately called. Barnaby was awarded an 8-3 tiebreaker win, to score a 2-1 win for the match.
The Bloodhounds fell by a final team score of 3-6.
NEXT UP: John Jay continues the final week of the regular season with a road, non-conference match against Purchase College on Thursday, Apr. 25. Action from Purchase is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.
