Swat Tennis Starts Fall Season
SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- The top Swarthmore doubles' pair, Kevin Shaughnessy '09 and Eric Legunn '12, advanced to the final of the Flight 1 doubles' competition at the Tim Berman Memorial Invitational this past weekend.
The Berman Memorial Invitational serves as the season opener for Swarthmore, as well as the University of Delaware and Haverford. The 2008 edition saw significant rain on Friday night, pushing Saturday morning’s action into the Mullan Tennis Center and Lamb-Miller Fieldhouse. By mid-afternoon, the outdoor courts had dried and the participants moved out to Faulkner and the College Avenue Courts.
Shaughnessy (South Kingston, R.I. / South Kingston), a first-team All-Centennial doubles selection at the end of last season, did not miss a beat with his new partner, Legunn. The duo sailed past Haverford’s Evan Stiegel and Thomas Kinrade (ranked 24th in the June ITA polls) in the first round of Flight 1 action, by score of 8-3. Shaughnessy (left) got a bit of revenge; it was Stiegel and Kinrade who handed the Swarthmore senior his lone Centennial doubles’ defeat of 2008 (Shaughnessy and partner Jon Lo ’08 were a perfect 8-0 during the regular season). The victory enabled Shaughnessy and Legunn (Waccabu, N.Y. / John Jay) to advance into the finals where the top Delaware duo, Andre Vorobyov and Austin Longacre, prevailed by a score of 8-2.
Delaware, a Division-I program competing in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), swept all five finals in the singles’ competition and also won both flights of doubles’ play.
Swarthmore freshman Stephen Youngblood (Norcross, Ga. / homeschool) tallied a big victory in just his second collegiate match, defeating reigning Centennial Player of the Year, Kinrade, 6-3, 3-6,10-8 in Flight 1 action.
Garnet senior JJ England (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. / The Benjamin School) posted his first victory of the season in Flight 2 action, topping Haverford’s Marc Rudolph in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.
Senior Dan Wulc (Bryn Mawr, Pa. / Harriton) stepped in for injured classmate Marc Greenburg, picking up a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Penn Tong from Haverford in Flight 3 action. Sophomore Josh Abel (Philadelphia, Pa. / Friends Central) recorded his first collegiate win, breezing past Stephen Griffths from Haverford in Flight 5, by scores of 6-3, 7-6 (2).
A trio of Swarthmore freshman, Zak Kelm (Cleveland, Ohio / University School), Legunn, Maxwell Bressman (Chappaqua, N.Y. / Horace Greeley), and Taylor Chen (Houston, Texas / Lamar), posted their first collegiate victories. Kelm topped Jeff Monhait from Haverford, 6-1, 6-0, in Flight-3 play; in Flight 4, Legunn prevailed, 6-0, 6-1, over Haverford’s William Garrett and Bressman rolled past the Fords’ Chris Steinroeder, 6-0, 6-1.
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