Filip and Kacpur Rams, who hail from Poland, finished the Navy Invitational undefeated in doubles matches. Kacpur Rams won all but one singles match.
The men’s tennis team traveled to Annapolis, Md., this past weekend for the Navy Invitational and left confidently after taking two out of three matches at the tournament.
The Owls took care of Duquesne on Friday, winning all but one match in the tournament opener. In two doubles matches, the Owls went 16-9, and in singles, freshman Kacper Rams and sophomores Filip Rams, Dmitry Vizhunov and Mansur Gishkaev each won their respective matches.
On Saturday, the Owls lost a close match to Marist, 5-4, but pulled out a 4-3 victory in Sunday’s match against a formidable Navy team, the host team, to close out the invitational.
In doubles, the Owls went a combined 22-19 against the Midshipmen with the Rams brothers and Gishkaev and Vizhunov winning their matches.
In singles, Gishkaev won the deciding match, losing the first set, 4-6, but coming back to win the next two sets with scores of 6-2 and 7-5.
Coach Steve Mauro said Kacpur Rams may have been the most surprising player of the whole tournament. Rams won all his matches except one, and Mauro said he seemed to help his older brother Filip feel more comfortable on the court.
Filip Rams led the Owls, going undefeated in three singles and three doubles matches throughout the tournament.
The Polish brothers also play doubles together and were undefeated as a tandem for the entire invitational.
“I have really good chemistry with my brother,” Filip Rams said. “Together, we are pretty solid.”
If there was a downside for the team this weekend, it came in the wake of a wrist injury to sophomore Matt King.
“We will have Matt sit out the rest of the fall and come back in the spring,” Mauro said.
With a young team, which includes five sophomores and two freshmen on the roster, Mauro said it may be tough to fill in for injuries. Nevertheless, he said his expectations for the team remain high.
“I am very pleased with the effort of my team,” he said. “We expect to be in the Top 50 in the country when the rankings come out in the early spring. I’m sure it’s probably been a long time since Temple’s been ranked that high.”
The Owls play again Oct. 10 and 11 at Lehigh, giving them time to regroup after the loss of King.
Ryan Rosengrant can be reached at ryan.rosengrant@temple.edu.
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