Tennis Continues Nonconference Play Against Temple and St. John’s

The Columbia men’s and women’s tennis teams return to action this Friday in a double header at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center that will see both teams in pivotal matches. The men will take the court first in a matchup against the Red Storm of St. John’s University, a team the Lions defeated 4-1 last season. The women, who are incidentally coming off a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to St. John’s last weekend, will take the court at 4 p.m. against the Temple University Owls, in what will be the Lions’ final home match until they open Ivy League play on March 29 against Cornell.

The men’s team will look to carry over the momentum it gained last weekend when they swept both their opponents by a combined score of 13-1. The Red Storm, however, should present a much more formidable opponent as they come into the match 3-0 in the spring season, including an impressive 5-2 win on the road against Ivy League foe Yale. The Lions and the Red Storm have one opponent in common thus far in the season, the Knights of Fairleigh Dickinson, whom Columbia defeated 7-0 and St. John’s defeated 6-1.

Columbia will look to take control of the match early by capturing the important doubles point. St. John’s has won all three doubles points this season, and won last year against the Lions. The doubles teams from both schools have seen each other earlier this winter in the Columbia Classic. St. John’s number one doubles team of juniors Artem Vlasenko and Alex Svetlakov defeated Columbia’s Ilia Shatashvili and Magdy El Mihdawy 8-4 in a main draw match. The Lions will be hoping that their top-ranked doubles team of Bogdan Borta and Justin Chow will be able to counter the aggressive play of the Red Storm. While the duo has the top ranking in the Northeast, their inconsistent play has left them with a record of 2-1 in non-conference play, stats they will look to improve on Friday.

The women will take on the Temple Owls after the men’s match is finished, in a rare double-header. The Owls began the season 0-2, dropping opening matches to Penn and Princeton, but have gone on a tear as of late, stringing together four impressive victories. Leading the Owls will be junior Dina Senkina, who was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week for women’s tennis for her outstanding play this past weekend. Senkina, who plays number two singles and number one doubles, went a combined 4-0 last weekend, to boost her singles record to 5-2 and her doubles record to 7-3.

The Lions will counter with a deep line up, headed by junior Nina Suda, who will be looking to improve her record of 0-5 this season. Head coach Ilene Weintraub must be encouraged by the outstanding play of freshman Stephanie Zilberman, who won both her singles and doubles matches this past weekend. Zilberman, who plays number three singles and number two doubles with junior Lauren Shearer, will try to lead the Lions to victory and improve on their current record of 2-3 in their non-conference schedule. The match against the Red Storm should be a good indicator of the Lions’ chances in the Ivy League this year, as the Red Storm were beaten convincingly by both Penn and Princeton earlier in the season.