The men’s tennis team opened its spring season with a loss at James Madison University, while the women’s team played its third competition of the young season at the Cornell University Invitational.
The GW men lost 6-1 Jan. 30 at Montclair Country Club. The Colonials dropped the top five singles matches. Junior Mike Stein came through with the only singles victory for GW, defeating JMU’s Gerd Wecht 8-4 in a pro-set format.
“Mike Stein played great,” GW head coach Tom Hawkins said. “He can adjust his game to anyone.”
Four of GW’s players lost in straight sets, while freshman Kinzie Wright extended his opponent to three sets.
“We haven’t had any competition since the fall, so I was pleased,” Hawkins said. “We couldn’t hold concentration for whole matches.”
GW won just one of the three doubles matches, losing the one point awarded for doubles. Kent Wright and Mike Rozofsky won at No. 1 doubles by a score of 8-6.
The women’s team entered six players in the Cornell Invitational Jan. 29-31, but only one singles player and one doubles team registered wins.
The invitational was highlighted by GW’s team of freshman Katarina Stastny and junior Sarine Weingarten, who won their first three matches against teams from Cornell, Seton Hall and Columbia universities. Their run ended in the finals with an 8-5 loss to a team from Penn State University.
“Sarine and Katarina played well,” GW head coach Jeanne Gengler said. “They lost in the doubles `A’ finals in an outstanding performance.”
Stastny was also GW’s only player to win a singles match when she defeated Amy Koontz of Bloomsburg University 8-2 in a consolation match after losing her first match.
Megan Goldsmith and Laurel Lebby both lost a pair of matches at the event; Weingarten, Holly Huntley and Paige Novack all lost once. The team of Goldsmith and Lebby, and the team of Huntley and Novack both lost in the first round of doubles competition.
The men’s team plays at Old Dominion University Friday and at the Virginia Commonwealth University Tournament Saturday and Sunday. The women travel to the University of Pennsylvania Feb. 13.
-Rich Murphy contributed to this report.
