Men’s Tennis Competes in Fall Invitational against Amherst, BU, Dartmouth and Harvard over the Weekend

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Over the weekend, the MIT men's tennis team competed with top tiered talent in its own Fall Invitational that was held at the duPont Tennis Courts, on the campus of MIT and the Beren Tennis Center at Harvard University.

The Engineers were matched up against Amherst College, Boston University, Dartmouth College and Harvard in a two day tournament, preparing the Cardinal and Gray for the upcoming spring season.
The invitational began on Friday evening as the Engineers won three of the four singles matches and went 2-2 in doubles action against BU. Freshman Alex Cauneac (Severna Park, Md.), who was in the "Final Four" at the ITA New England Regional Tournament last weekend, defeated junior Jay Leelavanich (Canoga Park, Calif.) 6-4, 6-2.

Classmate Sean Ko (Danville, Calif.) registered a 6-3, 2-6, 11-9 win over junior Mario Sandoval (Dallas, Texas), while junior Kenny Gea (Irvine, Calif.) beat junior Miguel Cepeda (Mason, Ohio) by a 6-4, 6-0 margin. Terriers junior Lucas Bombonatti (Houston, Texas) defeated MIT senior Dennis Garcia (Corpus Christi, Texas) 6-4, 6-0 in the third singles match of the night.

In doubles action, Cauneac and classmate Tyler Barr (Auburn Township, Ohio) teamed up for a 8-6 win over senior William Kwok (Sydney, Australia) and freshman Satyajit Simhadri (Saratoga, Calif.), while Ko and freshman Henry La Soya (Los Angeles, Calif.) took down freshman Jeff Chan (Hong Kong, China) and junior Jake De Vries (Irvine, Calif.), 8-5.

On Saturday, the Engineers were paired up in multiple singles and doubles matches with student-athletes from Amherst, Dartmouth and Harvard. Amherst claimed five of seven singles and all four doubles matches, while Cauneac was the only Engineer to claim a win over Harvard, in come back fashion.

Caunac was paired against sophomore Kenny Tao (San Jose, Calif.) at the No. 1 singles position. Tao took the first set by a 6-1 margin, but Canueac fought back for a 6-4, 10-7 win against the Crimson sophomore. Ko defeated freshman Zach Bessette (Brandenton, Fla.) from Amherst 7-6, 6-1, 13-11 in the first match of the day, while Barr notched a 6-2, 6-4 win over Lord Jeffs senior Ben Fife (Scarsdale, N.Y.).

The Engineers have the rest of the winter off from competition, before opening the spring season late in February with opponents and start times to be determined.