Elmira Wraps-Up Play at King's College Invitational
Wilkes-Barre, PA -- The Elmira College men's tennis team had a solid showing at the King's College Invitational, with four out of six players reaching the quarterfinals of their respective brackets in singles. This was the final warm-up tournament for the men before next weekend's USTA-ITA Northeast Regional Championships.
With yesterday's rain postponing the start of the tournament to today, there would be no other matches besides the ones played in the main draw, meaning the EC players would have to win to continue on their day.
Keith Bujak '15, Patrick Tracey '18, and Steven Farnholz '18 each started the morning off with first round victories, advancing them into the quarterfinals.
Bujak defeated Elizabethtown's Alex Machalick in a three-set thriller, 6-2, 5-7, 10-7, punching his ticket to the quarterfinals where he would matchup with the number one seed from King's College, George Parkhurst. Bujak would fall to Parkhurst, 6-1, 6-4, ending his run in singles. Tracey also endured a three-set opening match. Tracey split the first two sets, 3-6, 6-3 and completed his come-from-behind victory with an 11-9 win in the super tiebreaker. EC's final singles victory came from Farnholz, who made easy work of Elizabethtown's Evan Hinkley. Farnholz cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win in his first match before falling 6-1, 7-6(6) in his quarterfinal match.
With all Elmira players eliminated from singles play, the attention turned to doubles. Unfortunately for the Purple and Gold, none of the three doubles teams were able to pull out victories. Bujak and
Satchal Waters '16 teamed up in the first doubles flight, falling to the eventual tournament champions from Elizabethtown College. Farnholz and Tracey were in a tight battle at second doubles, but fell, 8-4, and
Neal Statts '17 and Chris Konow '18 dropped their semifinal match, 8-1.
EC will compete in the USTA-ITA Northeast Regional Championships, hosted by Hobart College, beginning on Saturday, September 20th. The draws for the tournament have yet to be released, but will be posted later this week.