It was an active week for NYU tennis, with both the men’s and women’s teams playing at home and on the road with mixed results.

The women beat William Smith College 7-2 on Friday in Geneva, NY, their second straight win to start the spring season. They started strong with five straight singles wins. Each of the victories were in straight sets, and William Smith never managed to win more than three games. Junior Laila El Dessouki had the largest win, beating Connie Froass 6-3, 6-0. The only victory in singles for Williams Smith came from Sydney Ferry, who beat Violets sophomore Nicole Schnabel in a tough three-setter. The women won two of the three doubles matches handily. Senior Carmen Lai and freshman Fleura Shiyanova won 8-4, as did El Dessouki and freshman Vanessa Scott.

On Saturday, the men faced a difficult Skidmore College team in Saratoga Springs, NY. Things started out tough with Skidmore winning the first four matches against NYU freshman Benedict Teoh, senior captain Sidd Thangirala, sophomore Samuel Khoshbin and Jiri Honajzer.  After that junior Matt DeMichiel and freshman Yanik Parsch earned a pair of Violets victories, with Parsch winning a competitive 2-6, 7-5, 10-8 match against Travis Leaf. But in doubles, the men won only one match. Freshman Shrikar Kundur and Thangirala beat Steve Koulouris and Lucas Pickering in a close 9-8 contest, but Parsch and DeMichiel fell to Leaf and Kit Sanderson 8-3. Teoh and junior Sammy Aronson were defeated by Kai Yuen Lueng and Nick Fong 8-4.

The women extended their winning streak on Sunday, this time over Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. Lai started things off with a dominant 6-1, 6-1 win over Emily Laudrillard. Going third, Scott beat Melanie Frank 6-2, 6-0. Senior captain Madeline King won a tight match 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 against Pooja Ganesh, and it took a third set tiebreaker for Shiyanova to knock off Maria Salmon 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5). NYU continued to dominate in doubles, taking two out of three. Lai and Shiyanova beat Laudrillard and Frank 8-1, while Scott and Dessouki beat Salmon and Andrea Valencia 8-2. The women’s next meet is on March 13 against Brandeis University at home in the Bronx for senior day.

The men were also victorious on Sunday, getting a taste of redemption against Vassar College, who they beat 6-3. The majority of singles matches were very competitive, with each team taking three. Vassar won the first two, with Teoh and Thangirala falling to Nick Litsky and Daniel Cooper respectively. Khoshbin then handled Evan Udine 6-2, 6-2. After Vassar won the next match to go 3-1 up overall, DeMichiel and Parsch won back-to-back matches in straight sets to tie things up. With the pressure on, doubles went completely NYU’s way. Teoh and Aronson won their set 8-2, while Thangirala and Kundar won 8-4. Finally, DeMichiel and Parsch won 8-3 to seal a nice win for the team. They face Hobart College next Friday in
Geneva, NY.

A version of this article appeared in the March 7 print edition. Email Tony Schwab at [email protected].