WILLIAMSTOWN, MA (September 16, 2016) -- The Vassar College men's tennis team opened its 2016-17 season Friday evening, traveling to Williams College for non-conference action. The Brewers battled hard in both singles and doubles play, showing some fight and determination all the way through the lineup, but ended up falling 8-1 to the No. 12-ranked Ephs. 

In doubles action, the freshman pairing of Jeremy Auh and Allen Sokolov teamed up at No. 1 in their first collegiate match. The pair would play well at times, but would end up falling to the top pairing of Taylor and Grodecki, 8-5. 

Seniors Alexander Luckmann and Nick Litsky also dropped their first doubles match of the year at No. 2, as Vassar fell behind 2-0 after an 8-5 loss to Sachin Raghavan and Rohan Shastri. At No. 3 doubles, Juan Felipe Laso and Dom Demeterfi had a great match, pushing Christian O'Connor and Deepak Indrakanti to the limit before falling 9-7. 

Despite falling behind 3-0 in doubles, Vassar took some confidence going into the singles action. Sokolov dropped his first match of the singles 6-1, 6-1 to Indrakanti to make the score 4-0, and Williams clinched the match with a win at No. 1 singles as Grodecki knocked off Litsky with scores of 6-0, 6-1. The lone win of the day for the Brewers was up next, as Laso made quick work of Shastri at No. 3 with scores of 6-2, 6-3. 

"Juan Felipe had a great result today against a very good player," said head coach Alex Wong. "Shastri has always been extremely tough against us but Laso did a geat job of staying focused and working hard. It's a great way to start the season for him and we will look for him to have a great senior season." 

Sophomore Jamie Anderson battled Raghavan at No. 4 singles, playing maybe the most exciting match of the day. Anderson dropped the first set 6-3, but battled back with a gritty win in the second set with the score of 6-4. In the super-tiebreaker, Anderson pushed Raghavan to the limit before dropping the 10-8 heartbreaker. 

Auh finished his first day of action as a Brewer with a 6-2, 6-3 loss at No. 5 singles, while Demeterfi fell 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6 singles. Freshman Zamir Birnbach picked up an exhibition victory as well for Vassar. 

"I'm proud of how the guys competed today as Williams is always a top team," said Wong. "We stayed positive and fought hard throughout the day and we look forward to building upon our efforts. It was good to see the new players in action and I am excited for the future of our team."

The Brewers are back in action on Saturday, September 24, traveling to Union College at 9 a.m. for Liberty League action, before returning home the same day at 4 p.m. to battle Bard College in more conference action.