Slow Starts Trip Up Parodi, Katzman in ITA Cup Semifinals

ROME, Ga. - Senior Nikolai Parodi and junior Jack Katzman both tried to battle back from slow starts, but came up short in the Oracle ITA Cup national semifinals on Friday morning at the Rome Tennis Center.

Katzman dropped his semifinal match 6-1, 6-4 to Stanley Morris of Middlebury, while Nikolai Parodi fell 6-2, 7-6 to Boris Sorkin of Tufts. 

After struggling through the first set, Katzman found a rhythm midway through the second set, and nearly put himself in a position to force his match to a third. Trailing 6-1, 3-1, Katzman earned a key break to get back and serve and then took a 4-3 lead in the second. He earned a couple of break points to try to take a 5-3 lead and seize the momentum, but Morris was able to fight them off to hold after several deuces, and then went on to break back to finish off his 6-1, 6-4 win. 

Parodi, meanwhile, was broken on his first serve of the match before falling in the first set 6-2, then bounced back to take a 2-0 lead in the second. Sorkin broke right back and eventually pulled ahead 5-3 in the second with a match point on Parodi's serve. Parodi fought that one off for a hold, and then broke to get back level at 5-5. After each player held serve, the second set went to a tiebreaker and Sorkin was able to pull it for a straight-set win, 6-2, 7-6.

With the defeats, CMS concludes its fall schedule and will be back in action in the spring semester, beginning with a trip to Hawaii in January to compete in the Hidden Duals in Honolulu Jan. 16-19, meeting Pacific (Ore.), Hawaii Pacific and Trinity (Texas).