Hofstra tennis opens the season

The Hofstra men’s tennis team began their official season on Sept. 30 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Graduate student Ostap Kovalenko competed in the pre-qualifying event for the 2023 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships. Despite winning the first set, Kovalenko fell to Middle Tennessee State University’s Leo Raquin 6-4, 2-6, 1-6 in the first round of 256 players.

Hosted at Yale University, the 2023 ITA Northeast Regional Championships began on Friday, Oct. 6. The Pride men’s team won nine matches in singles and doubles. The graduate duo of Kovalenko and Jonathan Mahrt Guyou rolled through their draw to earn a qualification at the 2023 ITA Division I Men's Northeast Super Regional Championships.

In singles, junior Kaita Odani earned a hard-fought three set singles win over Colgate University’s Ben Graham 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, but lost to fellow junior Luke Neal of Yale in the following round 6-2, 7-6. Junior Josh Reynolds lost his first singles match to Boston College’s Connor McDonald 4-6, 2-6. Junior Matthew Garcia lost his first-round match to another member of the Boston College team 4-6, 6-7. After receiving a bye in the first round, Kovalenko managed to tough out the win against Quinnipiac University’s Ayato Arakaki 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 but then lost in straight sets to Boston College’s Jake Vassel 7-5, 6-4.

Vincent Turina picked up two straight set wins over Fordham’s Nicholas Kanazirev and Dartmouth’s Waleed Qadir 6-2, 6-2 and 7-6, 7-6 respectively. He was unsuccessful, however, against Aiden Reilly of Yale with a score of 6-7, 2-6.

In doubles, the junior team of Reynolds and Odani fell short of a win in the first round against the Fairfield University team Alex Aguiar and Keean Shah with the pro set score being 3-8. Another Pride junior team avenged their teammates’ losses to Boston College by defeating Mai Gao and Connor McDonald 8-6 before falling to Dartmouth’s Henry Ren and Alex Knox-Jones with a reverse score of 6-8. Finally, the Pride’s graduate team of Kovalenko and Mahrt Guyou laid waste to their section of the draw. They beat Bryant University’s Agustin Suarez and Diego Trejo 8-3, Sacred Heart University’s Enrique Laennec-Baffrey and Percy Meehan 8-3, Yale’s Luke Neal and Dylan Tsoi 8-7 and Dartmouth’s Logan Chang and Yujiro Onuma 8-2. Their quest for the 2023 ITA Division I Men's Northeast Super Regional Championships begins on Friday, Oct. 20, at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.

The Hofstra women’s tennis team began their official season on Friday, Oct. 6, in New York, New York at Columbia University. Four Pride members competed in singles and doubles of the 2023 ITA Women’s Northeast Regional Championships.

Graduate student Dianela Rodriguez lost her first match in the round of 64 players to Sophia Wang of Columbia University 6-3, 6-1, following a bye in the first round of 128. Junior Lea Forste-Dinnell lost her first-round match to Michelle Ryndin of Cornell University 4-6, 7-5, [6-10]. Junior Deniz Soyer lost the round of 128 to Maggie Forkner of Lehigh University 6-7 (8), 6-3, [8-10]. Sophomore Sabira Mohamed was the most successful of the four as she defeated Sara Jankovic of St. Francis University 6-2, 6-3 but later succumbed to Mai Nguyen of Rutgers University 1-6, 1-6.

The Pride’s sophomore-graduate duo and all-junior team both ended up losing out to teams from Fordham University. Mohamed and Rodriguez received one of 16 byes in the first round and drew Rose Hu and Anlin Xie in the second to whom they lost 5-8. Soyer and Forste-Dinnell lost to Demi Jhaveri and Franny Shea in the first round of 48 teams 7-8 (3).

Photo courtesy of Alexis Friedman/Hofstra Athletics