The Red Storm men’s tennis team improved to 3-0 over the weekend by beating both Duquesne and Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday.

The team began their busy Saturday in Queens at the Alley Pond Tennis Center. There they would defeat the Duquesne Dukes 4-2 off the strength of victories in both doubles and singles by Junior Artem Vlasenko and Freshman Pavel Cerny. Junior Jordan Talbot’s match was not finished.
The Red Storm then traveled to Brooklyn, where the Knights of Fairleigh Dickinsonawaited them at the Bridgeview Racquet Club. St. John’s dominated the nightcap; Junior Alex Svetlakov was victorious in both singles and doubles, and Vlasenko and Cerny finished the day unbeaten and with four victories. A fresh Talbot would deliver the clinching point, giving the team an impressive 6-1 victory.

Freshman Asaf Honig and Junior Gustavo Loza struggled as a doubles pair, dropping both of their matches on the day. Loza did manage to win both of his singles matches.
The tennis team will return to action this Friday in Manhattan, when they square off against the Columbia Lions of the Ivy League at the Dick Savitt
Tennis Center.

The Red Storm women’s tennis team knew they had an uphill battle on Sunday when they headed into their Big East opener against a ranked DePaul team at the Alley Pond Tennis Center in Queens.

DePaul, ranked No. 71 in the country, entered the match up with the same number of losses as 1-3 St. John’s.

The difference was the six wins that they boasted in comparison to St. John’s single triumph.

When it was time for the matches to be played, the DePaul Blue Demons operated on all cylinders. They defeated St. John’s 6-1, despite a superb effort from top player senior Maria Zivcicova. Zivcicova teamed with Allison Adamski to win doubles match and scored the Johnnies’ lone point by securing a singles victory over DePaul’s Dunja Antunovic. The 6-1 victory was in some ways misleading as both freshman Emily Barnett and sophomore Ira Aleksova lost very close singles matches. Wins in both of these matches could have changed the complexion of things.

The women’s tennis schedule resumes after the break on March 1 when they meet the Seahawks of UNC-Wilmington at the campus of Old Dominion University in Virginia.