Last weekend, the Tulane men’s tennis traveled to San Diego to play in the Ed Collins Spring Classic, a three-day tournament co-hosted by San Diego State University and the University of California San Diego. Heading into the tournament, sophomore Luka Petrovic won American Athletic Conference player of the week in singles play. Fynn Kuenkler remained Tulane’s top singles player, ranking 80th nationally. 

Tulane, ranked No. 35 as a team and narrowly lost to the No. 36 Virginia Commonwealth University Rams 4-3 in their first test of the Collins classic. Though Petrovic won the first set of the deciding game 7-5, VCU’s Matisse Bobichon stormed back and took the second and third sets 6-3 and 6-4 respectively, along with the overall victory for the Rams. 

On day two of the classic, Tulane handily defeated the hometown San Diego State Aztecs in an impressive 4-0 sweep. The Green Wave’s No. 35 doubles tandem of Benji Jacobson and Charlie Barry easily beat the Aztecs 80th ranked duo, Johannes Seeman and Chikaya Sato, in a 6-3 score. Alex Bancila defeated Bora Sengul in straight sets for a clutch win, taking both sets 6-3. Unfortunately, many of the matches against San Diego State were called mid-game due to inclement weather, including Kuenkler and Seeman’s match, which was tied at a set a piece.  

Although the Green Wave reached double-digit wins on the season at the Collins Classic, they ultimately found their season record at 10-7 following a loss to the No. 34 San Diego Toreros. This time it was Tulane on the receiving end of a 4-0 sweep, just as they had done a day earlier to the Aztecs. Despite the sweep, the doubles play was a close and competitive game. Billy Suarez and Rafael de Alba narrowly lost on a tiebreak 7-6 to give the Toreros the second doubles win out of three matches and thus the overall point for doubles play. 

After an up-and-down weekend filled with sweeps of all kinds and weather cancellations, the Green Wave will travel to Oklahoma to add to their double-digit win total this Friday at 11 a.m. at Tulsa against the No. 55 University of Tulsa Golden Hurricanes and in Stillwater against the No. 31 Oklahoma State University Cowboys on Sunday.