St. John’s men’s tennis traveled to Princeton University this past weekend for the first ever IVY Plus Tournament. The tournament hosted twenty-one teams including 7 ivy leagues. The IVY Plus Tournament already gained a reputation since there were 17 players on the ITA preseason singles rankings list. Along with nine ranked doubles pairs. The team accomplished a lot already in their preseason along with wins against high ranked players.
Some of the highlights this past weekend were in the doubles match by Robert Livi (junior)/ Andrei Crapcenko (freshman) and Lucas Hejhal (senior)/ Vaidik Munshaw (senior).
Livi and Crapcenko made it to the finals of one of their doubles, before losing to Dartmouth by a tie break score of 8-7(6) according to the press release. As for Hejhal and Munshaw’s doubles that reached semifinals, they unfortunately did not win as Columbia won that bracket by 8-4.
Hejal beat the third-ranked player from Virginia Tech in the Tiger Draw, therefore helping the Red Storm overall record of 2-10 in singles play on Friday.
As for the Cordish Draw, Chris Vrabel from Cornell took down Elio Livi, sophomore, from a walkover.
In the first match of doubles, Hejal/Munshaw defeated two players from Harvard. Elio Livi and Alex Roskowski paired in doubles for the second match by St. John’s, but were defeated by Harvard from a walkover.
On Saturday, the Red Storm started off great in doubles as Hejal/Munshaw defeated Roiski/Pham from Columbia and Valero/Schipanski from Tennessee both 8-4.
Also strong in doubles were Robert Livi and Crapcenko, who both won two matches one being against Tulsa (8-1) and the other Cornell University.
Sunday morning started off great, as Hejal gained a victory by walkover in the Tiger Draw against Nick Bybel from Bucknell. Before Robert Livi and Crapcenko lost to Dartmouth, they both defeated Penn State University 8-6.
The team had lot of ups and downs, but will definitely progress as they head back to Princeton, New Jersey for the Farnsworth Tournament from October 9-11.
