Dragons Bow Out on Day Two at CAA Tournament

Friday, April 22

11:00 a.m.

Drexel University

Virginia Commonwealth

Rhazali, Bajpai and Unkaya completed their careers at Drexel, leading their team at the CAA Tournament

4/22/2011 1:50:00 PM | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis

Norfolk, Va. - Drexel tennis finished its 2010-11 season after a pair of gritty performances against the top seeds in the CAA Tournament. The Drexel women fell to No. 1 William & Mary, 4-0 and the men were bested by No. 1 Virginia Commonwealth 4-0. Seniors Gozde Unkaya, Manu Bajpai and Mehdi Rhazali completed their Drexel careers with strong performances in singles and doubles play at Old Dominion's Folkes-Stevens Tennis Complex.

After edging out Towson in their opening round match on Thursday, the Dragons ran into the top team in the tournament in the William & Mary Tribe. Sonja Stosic and Zeynep Mafa turned in the team's best performance in doubles play, facing a First Team All-CAA pairing of Hope Johnson and Anik Cepeda. Mafa and Stosic, who took home Third Team All-CAA honors at the previous night's awards banquet, trailed 5-4 in their match when the Tribe clinched the doubes point with an 8-2 win at second doubles.

On the singles side, Unkaya gave All-CAA First Teamer Hope Johnson a pair of tough sets at first singles, falling 6-3 and holding serve at 2-1 in the second set before the match ended with a William & Mary win at third singles. Unkaya finished her career as the team's leader in singles victories in two of her three seasons at Drexel.

The Drexel men defeated George Mason to earn a match-up againt the top-seeded Virginia Commonwealth Rams in round two. Nikoloz Kurdadze and Manu Bajpai, playing in their final doubles match together acquitted themselves well against the Rams' top pairing of Camill Salomon and Jamie Vazquez, trailing by a game at 4-3 when the point was clinched with a VCU win at second doubles.

The match of the day for Drexel was played at fifth singles where Jeganathan Srinivasan gave Camill Salomon all he could handle. Srinivasan broke Camill to take a 5-4 lead and give himself an opportunity to serve for the first set. Srinivasan's relentles pursuit of points combined with some aggressive first serves put Camill on his heels in the ninth game of the set. But the Ram would battle back to break Srinivasan's serve and hold his own to win a tight 7-5 first set. The pair were all square at 2-2 when VCU cliched the match with a win at fourth singles.

Senior Mehdi Rhazali gave it his all to extend the match at fourth singles, playing some of his best tennis of the tournament in his second set against Jamie Vazquez before falling 6-4. Rhazali and Manu Bajpai completed their careers at Drexel as two of the steady presences in Head Coach Tricia Udicious' lineup. Bajpai was the team's second leading singles players in victories this year and he was an All-Conference performer along with doubles partner Nikoloz Kurdadze as a junior. Rhazali has been in the team's top six in each of the last three seasons and has shown a great deal of leadership throughout his career.

Women's Match Results
#1 William & Mary 4, #9 Drexel 0

Singles
#1 Hope Johnson (W&M) vs. Gozde Unkaya (DU) – DNF 6-3, 2-1
#2 Marlen Mesgarzadeh (W&M) d. Sonja Stosic (DU), 6-2, 6-1
#3 Anik Cepeda (W&M) d. Zeynep Mafa (DU), 6-2, 6-1
#4 Katie Kargl (W&M) d. Emma Brook (DU), 6-0, 6-0
#5 Marivick Mamiit (W&M) vs. Elise Leizerovich (DU) – DNF 6-3, 2-1
#6 Sydney Smith (W&M) vs. Alex Bell (DU) – DNF 6-2, 1-0
Singles Order of Finish: 2, 4, 3

Doubles
#1 Cepeda/Johnson (W&M) vs. Mafa/Stosic (DU) – DNF 5-4
#2 Kargl/Mesgarzadeh (W&M) d. Leizerovich/Brook (DU), 8-0
#3 Lauren Sabacinski/Jeltje Loomans (W&M) d. Unkaya/Bell (DU), 8-2
Doubles Order of Finish: 3, 2

Men's Match Results
#1 VCU 4, #9 Drexel 0

Singles
#1 Tim Johannsen (VCU) vs. Nikoloz Kurdadze (DU) – DNF 6-1, 4-1
#2 Max Wennakoski (VCU) vs. Manu Bajpai (DU) – DNF 6-2, 3-0
#3 Antoine Baroz (VCU) d. Bryan Nguyen (DU), 6-0, 6-0
#4 Jamie Vazquez (VCU) d. Mehdi Rhazali (DU), 6-0, 6-4
#5 Camill Salomon (VCU) vs. Jeganathan Srinivasan (DU) – DNF 7-5, 2-2
#6 Filip Svensson (VCU) d. Skylar Davis (DU), 6-3, 6-1
Singles Order of Finish: 3, 6, 4

Doubles
#1 Vazquez/Salomon (VCU) vs. Kurdadze/Bajpai (DU) – DNF 4-3
#2 Johannsen/Baroz (VCU) d. Nguyen/Davis (DU), 8-2
#3 Wennakoski/Svensson (VCU) d. Rhazali/Robert Tekie (DU), 8-0
Doubles Order of Finish: 3, 2