Engineers smash competition at Siena Invitational

Rensselaer hosted five Division I teams—the Siena Saints, Marist Red Foxes, LIU Sharks, Rider Broncs, and Holy Cross Crusaders—for the Siena Invitational, their first time hosting the two-day tournament.

The Engineers competing in singles were Aiden Drover-Mattinen, Andy Zhu, and Igor Visnevskij in flight A; Tasmay Shah, Jonathan McMillan, Abraham Yohannes, and Max Safanov in flight B; Caden Marston, Bryce Burnham, and Sid Srinivasan in flight C. The pairs competing in doubles were Drover-Mattinen/Visnevskij and Zhu/Safanov in flight A, Yohannes/Srinivasan and Burnham/McMillan in flight B, and Varnasi/Tamaoki in flight C.

Drover-Mattinen, Zhu, Yohannes, and Srinivasan all progressed to the second day of competition after winning the first two rounds of singles. In doubles, Zhu/Safanov defeated Siena’s Vo/Russo 6-1 to advance to the flight A final. RPI dominated doubles flight B, with both Yohannes/Srinivasan and Burnham/McMillan winning their semifinal matches, but decided not to play the final.

Yohannes started the Engineers off the following morning, defeating LIU’s Danila Ischanka in a tiebreaker. At the same time, Siena’s Nardone/Suarez defeated Zhu/Safanov 6-4. Next up were Srinivasan and Drover-Mattinen, the former falling to LIU’s Guillerme De Medeiros in the flight C semifinal and the latter foiling Red Fox Dylan Friedman in two sets to advance to the flight A finals. Zhu, who was also in contention for the flight A finals, lost in his semifinal against Siena’s Dante Russo.

Drover-Mattinen would ultimately triumph over Russo in two sets, winning the first 7-5 and taking the second 6-3, to claim flight A title. Yohannes would also overtake his opponent, Holy Cross’s Declan Oflynn, in two sets to win flight B.