Temple debuts new courts, knocks off Siena

Temple took to the courts at its brand-new facility for the first time Friday, marking a historic milestone for the program. 

Prior to the match, the team and fans gathered for an opening ceremony that honored the new state-of-the-art tennis complex, setting the stage for what is sure to be an exciting era of Temple tennis. 

“The leadership here at Temple has played a big role, specifically President Fry and Arthur Johnson,” said team captain Pranav Nemani. “Their vision and dedication, they’ve supported us in having this facility become a reality. We’re just looking forward to having a Temple crowd come out and support us.”

As the Owls faced off against Siena College, it was clear that the team was energized not just by the competition but by their first opportunity in years to play in front of home fans on their own court. 

Temple Men’s Tennis (9-6, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) defeated Siena College (3-10, 2-1 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) 6-1 Friday afternoon at the Temple Tennis Complex. Temple dropped just two matches as it cruised to its fifth straight win. 

KEY MOMENTS

• Temple’s Martim Marujo and Aayush Bhat got off to a fast start, winning a hard-fought rally against Siena’s Dylan Breen and Zino Varouhas-Poole. Bhat sealed the victory with the final point in their 6-2 win, overcoming the challenging combination of left-handed and right-handed opponents.
• Nemani and Alberto Blumenschein displayed great chemistry in their match against Siena’s set of brothers, Fabio and Bruno Varella, by dominating with strong hits as they cruised to a 6-4 victory. 
• Russo and Maj Najvirit Kolaric started slow in their set against Oscar Martinez and Emilio Zavala Salinas and ultimately lost to the Siena pair. 

• Russo had a dominant match against Varella. He won a deuce point on his opponent’s serve, which propelled him to win the first set and keep him up a break of serve. 
• Kolaric had a long match with Maxwell Acri, going game for game but ultimately pulled away to win with a score of 6-4. 
• Nemani seemed to struggle with the new court’s slow surface, leading to a tight, slow-paced match against Zavala Salinas. Despite his best effort, he couldn’t pull through and lost in a closely contested 6-7 first set. 

THE NUMBERS

• Temple won doubles action 2-1, with just Russo and Kolaric being on the wrong side of a 6-3 match.

• The Owls won all but two sets in singles play, with both sets being in their only loss of singles action.
• Temple now has two more wins than it had won last year after picking up its ninth win of the season.

WORDS FROM COACH

“It was really good,” said Temple head coach Jeff Brandes. “We had a tough start with the doubles. Our number one double’s usually play better than that. The other two teams stepped it up. The first three singles matches on, everyone took care of business. ”

WORDS FROM THE TEAM

“The new courts mean the world to us,” Russo said. “The ability to compete with the top schools is not only about having the talent and coaches, but having the facilities as well, and this gives us that opportunity to take it to that next level.” 

ON TAP

Temple will take to the road this weekend and compete against St. John’s University (17-2, 3-0 Big East Conference) in Queens, New York, on March 30 at noon.