By Jake Markowitz
The Iowa men’s tennis team lost to San Diego, 4-3, in the third-place match of the USD/SDSU Invitational on San Diego’s campus on March 18.Starting on March 16, the eight-team invitational kicked off with a win for Iowa against Harvard, 4-2. The Hawkeye juniors all finished with victories in singles, highlighted by Lefteris Theodorou breaking out of his four-match slump by defeating the Crimson’s Sebastian Beltrame (6-4, 6-4).
Sophomore Jonas Larsen captured his 10th victory of the spring season over Andy Zhou (6-3, 6-4).
The following day, Iowa faced off against No. 25 Oregon (13-2) in the semifinals. The Hawkeyes were unable to win a point and fell to the Ducks, 4-0. Redshirt freshman Kareem Allaf was playing on the No. 2 court for the first time, but the match was left unfinished.
Allaf also teamed up with Larsen in doubles. The tandem took Oregon’s duo of Ty Gentry and Armando Soemarno to a tiebreak decision but ultimately was defeated (7-5 [5]).
In the final day of the invitational, Iowa lost to the host San Diego, 4-3, in the third place match.
In singles, junior Jake Jacoby kept his winning streak alive with his fifth-consecutive win (6-3, 6-1) over Alexandros Araouzos. Competing in the fourth spot for the first time this season, Larsen grabbed a win.
Allaf continued to improve his position and competed on the No. 1 court for the first time. In that position, Allaf faced off against No. 55 Filip Vittek, taking him to three sets but fell (6-7, 7-6, 6-1).
In doubles, juniors Silverstein and Theodorou were able to bounce back from a loss against Oregon to win on the No. 1 doubles court against Vittek and Joshua Page, (6-4). Allaf and Larsen were also able to redeem themselves and secured another doubles victory for the Hawkeyes on the No. 2 court, (6-2).
Entering the weekend, the doubles pair of senior Robin Haden and junior Jake Jacoby were 10-1, however, the two were unable to pick up a win over the weekend and fell to San Diego (6-2).
The Hawkeyes drop to 10-6 with the loss to San Diego.
Iowa will return to conference play on March 26 on the road to face Minnesota in Minneapolis.