NEWARK, NJ - The NJIT men's tennis team opened its season in dramatic fashion on Sunday, defeating Drexel 4-3 at the Naimoli Tennis Center.
Drexel (0-1) won the doubles point, but the Highlanders (4-2) took four of six singles matches to clinch the season-opening win.Â
"It was a great start to a new season," explained Head Coach
Ira Miller." We waited almost a year to show what we can do on the court and today we really shined."
Abdullah Fouad,
Josh Smith,
Samuel Townes, and
Ashwin Kanetkar each picked up a singles victory for the Highlanders on Sunday.
Kanetkar, who made his collegiate debut in the match, clinched the win for NJIT with a straight-set victory at fifth singles.Â
"The match came down to fifth singles and Ashwin played like a veteran to clinch the final match 6-4, 7-5," added Miller. "We had great enthusiasm and huge team support certainly helped us win the close ones today."
NJIT will look to make it two in a row when it returns to the court on Sunday, March 7 to take on La Salle. First serve is slated for 1pm back in the Naimoli Tennis Center.
FULL RESULTS
Doubles
#1 Djordje Janackovic and Alex De Sousa (L) defeat
Josh Smith and
Samuel Townes, 7-6
#2
Abdullah Fouad and
Amine El Kholti (N) defeat Gustav Wogen and Youseff Lahlou, 6-2
#3 Matvery Radionov and Alvaro Cruz Chamorro (L) defeat
Aidar Aidossov and
Ashwin Kanetkar, 6-2
Singles
#1
Abdullah Fouad (N) defeats Alex De Sousa, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
#2
Josh Smith (N) defeats Sanil Jagtiani, 7-5, 6-4
#3 Hugo Brungs (L) defeats
Amine El Kholti, 7-5, 6-1
#4
Samuel Townes (N) defeats Gustav Wogan, 6-4, 6-3
#5
Ashwin Kanetkar (N) defeats Alvvaro Cruz Chamorro, 6-4, 7-5Â
#6 Matvey Radionov (L) defeats
Juan Bejarano, 6-4, 6-2
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