1997-1998 Tennis Team Hits 30

The YU tennis team did not drop a single set en route to a 9-0 shutout of NY Polytechnic March 8 in the first match of the season.

The win was the 30^th straight for the Macs, who have not lost since 1994. In spring 1997, the Macs put up a perfect 11-0 record, after winning all of their 9 matches in each of the 1995 and 1996 seasons. The highly talented ’98 tennis squad, which consists of many returning players from last year, opened up the season with yet another win giving Bandler his 30^th victory as coach and a lot to look forward to the rest of the season.

Senior captains Josh Hasten, Tsvi Zilbershteyn and Shai Samet paced the win with straight set singles victories. Top seeded Hasten ran his record at YU to 19-1 with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Poly’s Quang Zhang. Zilbershteyn beat Danny Mui in second-seed singles, 6-3, 6-2 and third-seeded Samet defeated Tim Zung 6-0, 6-2.

Edon Hirt won his fourth seed match 6-1, 6-0 and David Schwartz and Oren Koslowe rounded out the singles wins.

Following singles, Hasten, nursing a cold, sat out for doubles as Samet and Yonatan Bendheim won the top doubles match 6-2, 6-2. The other pairs, Zilbershteyn and Schwartz and Hirt and Koslowe, also won easily, allowing Samet to arrive on time to the wedding of a former teammate, Mark Schlossberg. It took the Macs only 2 hours and 10 minutes to polish off their first opponent.

The tennis Macs will face Brooklyn and Baruch toward the end of March, and even tougher competitors, including St. Joseph’s and City College, in April and May. Although the YU tennis team has already set the record for being the only varsity team in YU history to go undefeated three straight seasons, they hope to extend their success to even greater heights.