Feb. 28, 2004

NEW HAVEN, CT- Though the Red fared much better in the second day of nationals than the first, they fell just shy of pulling out a win against the evenly-matched team of Western Ontario. The 6-3 loss in the Potter Division effectively puts Cornell of contention for a title.

Despite missing the victory, the players made the match a close and exciting one, managing to snag three of the matches out of the top 5 seeds with wins by William Cheng, Mike Delany, and Matt Greenberg. Ben Bernstein took his opponent to five sets, as did freshman Rohit Gupta in a marathon of a match with Brad Hanerbury at the 6th seed that saw 76 points played.

UWO really dominated in the bottom half of the order, securing wins in every seed below fifth. Combined with Matt Serediak's loss at the top seed and Ben's close loss to Jeff Lurie, Western Ontario scraped together enough points for the win.

For Coach Scott Stoneburgh, a graduate of UWO, the competition must have been an emotionally mixed one, seeing his old school defeat his current disciples. Still, just by being in the competition the Red have proved that they are one of the top 8 teams in the nation; not bad at all.

RESULTS:

1 Matthew Serediak Rob Nigro UWO 9-1 9-7 9-0

2 William Cheng Jones Cornell 2-9 9-4 9-1 9-3

3 Ben Bernstein Jeff Lurie UWO 9-5 4-9 1-9 9-0 9-1

4 Mike Delany Alex Carter Cornell 9-3 10-8 9-5

5 Matt Greenberg Josh Schwartz Cornell 9-6 9-3 9-5

6 Rohit Gupta Brad Hanebury UWO 2-9 9-3 10-8 1-9 9-6

7 Geoff Fong Mark Ridgeway UWO 9-3 9-7 9-1

8 Ben Stokes Will Mariani UWO 9-0 9-7 9-1

9 Ted Hill Colin Ramasra UWO 9-4 9-0 9-4