NEWARK, N.J. – The Monmouth University men's tennis team suffered a pair of defeats to No. 15 Columbia and NJIT, last weekend in non-conference matches. The Hawks fell to the Lions, 7-0, on Saturday before being edged by the Highlanders, 4-3, on Sunday.

For the second-straight match, the Blue and White took on a nationally ranked Ivy League opponent. In doubles play, MU (4-7) looked to steal the point after the No. 3 doubles tandem of Ramy Bekhiet (Robbinsville, N.J./Robbinsville) and Ale Gomez Estrada (Guayaquil, Ecuador/PERT) scored an 8-4 win over Ashok Narayana and Eric Jacobs, but Victor Pugliese (Boulogne, France/CNED [San Diego]) and Przemyslaw Filipek (Bedzin, Poland/Second Lo [Silesia]) got edged in a tiebreaker, 8-7 (3) at No. 1 which allowed Columbia to enter singles play with a 1-0 advantage.

Playing No. 3 singles, Gomez Estrada earned a 6-3 opening set win but Mike Vermeer notched scores of 6-2 and 6-4 in the final two sets to earn the victory. The Lions did not lose another set en route to the shutout victory.

"This was a great learning experience to play a top-15 team on the road,” commented head coach Cory Hubbard. “We had a chance to win the doubles point which would've been a huge accomplishment. We came out little flat in singles after dropping the doubles point and against a top team like that they jumped on us. I believe scheduling these ranked teams will only help us improve and be ready for MAAC play."

The following afternoon against the Highlanders, the Blue and White again received a victory from its No. 3 team of Bekhiet and Gomez Estrada, but dropped the doubles point when Markus Schultz and Arnaud Holl held off Pugliese and Filipek 8-7 (7).

NJIT (6-4) opened up singles play with a victory at No. 2, but Pugliese cut its lead to 2-1 following his 6-4, 7-5 win over Shultz at No. 1, while freshman Vidit Vaghela earned a come-from-behind 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Jan Cimrman at No. 4 even things up at 2-2. Holl captured a three-set victory over Gomez Estrada at No. 3 to give NJIT a one point lead, but Bee Kumthonkittikul (Bangkok, Thailand/Pendleton School) rebounded after a first-set loss and held a 5-0 lead in the third set when Richard Rangga retired, which knotted things up at 3-3. Luka Kaic clinched the match for the Highlanders with his No. 6 singles victory over Luke Adamus (Mosman, New South Wales/Redlands), 6-4, 6-2.

"I knew this was going to be one of these matches determined by a couple points,” stated Hubbard. “We had four match points to win the doubles point but couldn't close it out. It's disappointing because we haven't been able to play a match where all six guys are competing and playing to their ability. We need to figure out how to get everyone focused and competing at the same time."

Monmouth looks to rebound this Wednesday, March 11th when it takes on Radford at 6:00 p.m. at the Shrewsbury Racquet Club.

-@MUMTennis-

Tennis Match Results
Monmouth vs Columbia
Mar 07, 2015 at New York, N.Y.

#15 Columbia 7, Monmouth 0

Singles competition
1. Lin, Winston (COLUMBIA) def. Pugliese, Victor (MU-M) 6-1, 6-1
2. Ignat, Dragos (COLUMBIA) def. Filipek, Przemyslaw (MU-M) 6-3, 6-1
3. Vermeer, Mike (COLUMBIA) def. Gomez Estrada, Ale (MU-M) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
4. Vancura, Bert (COLUMBIA) def. Kumthonkittikul, Bee (MU-M) 6-3, 6-4
5. Hadavi, Shawn (COLUMBIA) def. Vaghela, Vidit (MU-M) 6-4, 6-1
6. Morgan, Daniel (COLUMBIA) def. Vieira, Christian (MU-M) 6-1, 6-3

Doubles competition
1. Lin, Winston/Vermeer, Mike (COLUMBIA) def. Pugliese, Victor/Filipek, Przemyslaw (MU-M) 8-7
2. Ignat, Dragos/Vancura, Bert (COLUMBIA) def. Vieira, Christian/Vaghela, Vidit (MU-M) 8-3
3. Bekhiet, Ramy/Gomez Estrada, Ale (MU-M) def. Narayana, Ashok/Jacobs, Eric (COLUMBIA) 8-4

Match Notes:
Monmouth 4-6
Columbia 6-2; National ranking #15
Doubles Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1
Singles Order of Finish: 2, 1, 6, 5, 4, 3

Tennis Match Results
Monmouth vs NJIT
Mar 08, 2015 at Newark, N.J.

NJIT 4, Monmouth 3

Singles competition
1. Pugliese, Victor (MU-M) def. Schultz, Markus (NJIT) 6-4, 7-5
2. Alban, Andres (NJIT) def. Filipek, Przemyslaw (MU-M) 7-6, 6-1
3. Holl, Arnaud (NJIT) def. Gomez Estrada, Ale (MU-M) 2-6, 6-3, 6-3
4. Vaghela, Vidit (MU-M) def. Cimrman, Jan (NJIT) 2-6, 6-2, 6-0
5. Kumthonkittikul, Bee (MU-M) def. Rangga, Richard (NJIT) 2-6, 6-1, 5-0, retired
6. Kaic, Luka (NJIT) def. Adamus, Luke (MU-M) 6-4, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. Schultz, Markus/Holl, Arnaud (NJIT) def. Pugliese, Victor/Filipek, Przemyslaw (MU-M) 8-7
2. Cimrman, Jan/Alban, Andres (NJIT) def. Vieira, Christian/Vaghela, Vidit (MU-M) 8-3
3. Bekhiet, Ramy/Gomez Estrada, Ale (MU-M) def. Rangga, Richard/Kaic, Luka (NJIT) 8-5

Match Notes:
Monmouth 4-7
NJIT 6-4
Doubles Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1
Singles Order of Finish: 2, 1, 4, 3, 6, 5