Cougars stumble against Panthers once again

The Cougar Men’s tennis team had lost just twice going into their second-to-last match of the season against St. Mary’s. In their first meeting, the Cougars were defeated by the Panthers, 5-2. Only David Trejo and Ohad Gilberg, the number one and number two singles players won their matches.

Albany faced off against St. Mary’s once again on April 15 on Memorial Courts in a match that was marked by controversy.

From the start, the Cougars struggled. The first three matches were losses. The Cougars finished on the short end of a 6-1 loss.

Senior Ohad Gilberg played a very close singles match, but was unable to come up with a win as he had done in his first match against St. Mary’s. Gilberg won the first set 6-3, but lost the next two sets. The second and third set Gilberg lost 6-3, 6-2, respectively.

According to Gilberg, St. Mary’s players watching the match he played uttered insensitive, anti-Semitic remarks to their teammate as words of encouragement, which touched on the tragic history of the Jewish people residing in Germany during Hitler’s regime. Thoroughly heated after the match, Gilberg stormed off the court to confront the St. Mary’s coach. The coach did nothing in response to what his players had said.

The only consolation was Trejo’s lone victory. He won his match by laboring through three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. In the first set, Trejo appeared to be in control early on in the match with his dominating serve. His opponent eventually gained ground by attacking his backhand to win the second set. In the third set, Trejo broke point early by displaying the intensity he used to win the first set to finish the match.

Number four singles player Ali Zavar was first to finish his match, which resulted in a loss of 6-3, 6-2. Freshman Brian Ling played number three singles and also lost 6-3, 6-0, despite taking an early 2-0 lead in the first set.

None of the Albany doubles teams were able to win even one set from St. Mary’s. The number one doubles tandem of Dennis Hua and Edmund Hsu was defeated 6-2, 6-3. Number two doubles partners Simon Chen and Johnny Weng lost their match 6-3, 6-2. Number three doubles team of Andrew Sparks and Chu-Meng Li lost 6-2, 6-1.

The Albany Cougars’ tennis season is nearly over. BSAL league playoffs begin Tuesday, April 22, in Alameda at the Harbor Bay Club.

8 Responses

  1. This makes me very upset. To hear that St. Marys players would utter such comments disgusts me. This must be dealt with.

  2. wow. haha

  3. If the St. Mary’s Athletic Director doesn’t see to it that the players and coach involved are disciplined, then our Athletic Directors should ask BSAL to expel St. Mary’s. The entire point of having interscholastic athletic competition is lost if this sort of behavior is tolerated.

  4. that debbie wanlin is a complete and utter joke. she never does anything to help any sports team, so i wouldn’t expect any action.

  5. You can’t complain about stuff like that. If you compete in any sport, there will be spectators and spectators can be rude sometimes. You can’t blame your loss on them. Suck it up, use it as motivation, and blast an ace down the T.

  6. those stupid St. Mary’s players started talking about jews and how they got burned by hitler they can go to hell. and whoever is tennis fan wtf i bet u wouldn’t be talking like that if there were people right next to you screaming about people from your religion getting killed and how they deserved it.

  7. “i bet u wouldn’t be talking like that is there were people right next to you screaming about people from your religion getting killed and how they deserved it.”

    haha this quote is so pathetic i have to laugh at it. tennis player, you suck.

    the comments made by the st mary’s players really aren’t a big deal

  8. tennis player is and idiot. tennis fan is right, so is “another tennis fan.”

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