Tennis suffers first setbacks of season

In a weekend during which the Terrapin men's and women's tennis teams suffered their first losses of the season, they also tacked on their most important victories.

The women's squad faltered in a tight match against Boston College before recovering yesterday to defeat No. 64 Brown in a shocking upset. The men's team, defeated thoroughly by No. 1 Virginia on Saturday, righted the ship and earned an important win over No. 57 Cornell yesterday.

The women's team nearly pulled out a rare ACC victory in its first attempt of the season against the Eagles (2-2, 1-0 ACC) on Saturday. The Terps (4-1, 0-1) split the singles points to keep on par with Boston College. But the No. 2 doubles match cost the Terps, where Jordan Hansbrough and Julia Huschke fell in tiebreakers, 7-4.

"I don't think the girls did a bad job," coach Howard Joffe said. "But we are a young team, and we have inexperience. We didn't get as much practice as we'd like before the match either."

The Terps' match against Boston College proved to be practice for their showing against Brown (0-4). The team received strong performances from every starter, winning the match in dominant fashion, 6-1. The squad swept the doubles sets and took five of six singles matches. The Terps were led by their top three of Jordaan Sanford, Ana Belzunce and Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar, who took their matches convincingly.

"Our 1-2-3 kids put a shellacking on their 1-2-3," Joffe said. "It is not surprising to me that they won in that fashion."

Defeating Brown, which has yet to win a match despite its ranking, helped lift the Terps' confidence after their earlier setback.

"Friday night's loss was disappointing for us," Sanchez-Quintanar said. "But our efforts and hard work were rewarded today against a tough ranked team in Brown. I'm so pleased we are getting some results and putting the Terps back on the tennis map."

The men's team's weekend got off to a poor start in Charlottesville, Va., where they were crushed, 7-0, against the top-ranked Cavaliers (8-0, 1-0). The Terps hung tough in all three doubles matches but fell short in all of them. Every singles player but Jesse Kiuru lost in double sets to their conference rival.

But like the women's squad, the men rebounded from their loss quite well. The Terps were able to take down Cornell (6-2) on the strength of three doubles victories and a key third-set victory for No. 36 Maros Horny, who beat Andy Gauthier, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. The victory was the Terps' first over a ranked opponent since 2009, when they beat No. 59 William & Mary.

"We came out sloppy in the singles matches, but we persevered," coach Kyle Spencer said. "Andy [Magee] and John [Collins] had tough battles, and everyone else was able to come out on top. This does show the progression of our program by beating a ranked team, and I think the home crowd really helped us."

The men's team next faces No. 28 Virginia Tech at home Sunday, while the women play at No. 45 Harvard this weekend.

munson@umdbk.com