Miami’s men’s and women’s tennis teams opened 2022 with strong outings against ISTA-ranked competition in the Miami Spring Invite at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
The men’s squad competed against a trio of top-15 teams in the invite from Jan. 7–9 and won seven contests of nine total across the 3-day event.
Now 2-0 after dominant 6-1 and 7-0 performances against Troy and Binghamton Monday, the Hurricanes didn’t fail to defend their home court against No. 3 Texas, No. 8 Georgia and No. 11 Central Florida. UM went 4-2 in singles and 3-0 in doubles.
Dan Martin and Oren Vasser powered Miami to a two consecutive 6-3 victories in doubles, the first against Kento Yamada and Alan Rubio of Central Florida, and the other versus Georgia’s Blake Croyder and Trent Bryde. The veteran duo completed the Hurricanes’ doubles sweep in a 6-2 result.
In singles action, Vasser earned victories over Britton Johnston of Georgia, 6-3, 6-3, and bounced back to win the final two sets of a three-set battle against Lleyton Cronje of UCF. The fourth-year junior’s only defeat hailed from a 7-5, 7-5 result versus Texas’ Evin McDonald.
Martin represented Miami with wins against two top-100 players and garnered two victories in three sets each. No. 16 Trey Hilderbrand of UCF fell to the 121st-ranked Dartmouth transfer 6-7, 6-2, 7-2, and Martin beat No. 73 Cleeve Harper of Texas 4-6, 7-6, 7-5. Martin lost to No. 32 Hamish Stewart of Georgia 2-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, nonetheless.
Similar to the men’s team, the women’s team began 2022 on a high note at their home court.
The Hurricanes went 14-12 overall after facing numerous fierce competitors from top-ranked teams including No. 1 Texas, No. 8 NC State and Vanderbilt. UM went 10-10 in singles and 4-2 in doubles.
Audrey Boch-Collins was a stand-out player throughout the tournament, leading the team by winning all three of her singles matches. On Saturday, she dominated the court and destroyed Vanderbilt’s Yufei Long 6-0, 6-1.
Additionally, Eden Richardson and Maya Tahan scored two wins each in singles.
The best victory of the weekend came from Richardson after her huge comeback win over No. 8 Jadea Daniel of NC State. She ended the match 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
On the doubles side, the Hurricanes earned four victories and lost two heartbreakers.
Miami’s No. 40 Daevenia Achong and Eden Richardson proved to be a scary duo as they swept their competition, winning both of their matches 6-3. They defeated notable opponents including a duo of Kylie Collins and Peyton Stearns who previously made the 2021 NCAA Doubles Championship title match.
On Saturday, Audrey Boch-Collins and Isabella Pfenning won a bagel set against Texas’ Gabby Cusano and Simran Kortikere. However, on Monday the duo lost a close match against Sara Nayar and Priska Nugroho.
“Boch-Collins and Richardson had pretty incredible weekends. They both stayed true to their tennis and played complete matches; it showed in their results.” Yaroshuk-Tews said.
The Canes men’s squad is next in action Friday at 3 p.m. as it hosts Florida Gulf Coast in Coral Gables, while UM’s women traveled to Fort Myers, Florida, to take on the Eagles in their first dual match of the season on Thursday.
Jenna Rothenstein contributed to this story.