Nazareth blanks Utica; Elmira Defeats Alfred
NAZARETH 9, Utica 0
The Nazareth Men's tennis team won their first 2015 E8 match this afternoon defeating the Utica Pioneers 9-0. Nazareth is now 1-0 in Empire 8 matches and 1-7 overall for the 2014-2015 season.
In doubles action, Nazareth started the match out strong winning all three doubles matches. Nazareth gained points at first doubles and second doubles with the duos of
Tyler Williams and Jared Sharza, and
Scott Trobert and
Christian Bryant each winning 8-1 at first and second doubles respectively. At third doubles, the tandem of
Matt Jennings and
Brian Rosiek defeated their opponents with a final score of 8-0.
Nazareth continued their strong showing, and dominated the Pioneers in singles action winning five of the six singles matches 6-0,6-0. The toughest match for the Golden Flyers was at second singles, where junior
Scott Trobert was able to gain Nazareth's final point with a score of 6-2, 6-4.
ELMIRA 7, Alfred 2
The Elmira College men's tennis team kept their spring season rolling along as they moved to 2-0 in Empire 8 Conference play, and 5-2 overall, by defeating Alfred University, 7-2. The win over the Saxons is Elmira's fifth in a row overall, extending the longest win streak an EC team has produced in over 14 years.
EC got off to a fantastic start as they sweept doubles for the second straight match. Elmira's first doubles team of
Keith Bujak '15 and
Satchal Waters '16 continued their dominant 2014-15 campaign as they coasted to an 8-2 win. The other two doubles matches, however, were much closer as both
Austin Mansell '16 and
Chris Konow '18 at second doubles and
Yaniv Kogan '18 and
Scott Ferron '16 at third doubles were in tight battles with their opponents.
Mansell and Konow held a 6-5 lead late in their match, but Alfred won consecutive games to take a 7-6 advantage. EC's second doubles team fought to force a tiebreaker at 8-8 and never let the Saxons get anything going in the tiebreaker, winning the match 9-8. Elmira was in even more of a dire situation at third doubles as Kogan and Ferron found themselves trailing 7-5 before starting their closing run. The duo came together and rallied, winning the next four games for the 9-7 victory.
Fresh off their sweep of doubles, EC looked to carry that momentum into singles play. Waters, at second singles, and Mansell, at third singles, each jumped out to sizable leads in their respective first sets, eventually taking them 6-2 and 6-1, respectively. Each player saw a bit more fight from their opponents in the second set, but it did not matter as they both wrapped-up their victories almost simultaneously. Waters won the second set 6-3 and Mansell took his second set 6-1 to give Elmira their fourth and fifth points of the match, clinching the victory.
Konow was having a bit more difficulty with his opponent as he was down by a break for most of the first set. Trailing 6-5, he came up with a crucial break of serve to force a tiebreak and then won the tiebreaker 7-5 to take the opening set. Konow dropped the second set, 6-3, and with the match already decided, a 10-point tiebreaker was used to determine the winner. Konow jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the tiebreaker and then held off his opponent's charge at the end, closing out the three-set victory with a 10-7 win in the breaker.
EC's final point of the afternoon came at fifth singles where Kogan was playing an abbreviated eight-game pro-set for his match. Kogan trailed 4-3 midway through his match, but the Israel native, similar to his doubles match, would rattle off five straight games to secure the victory.
STEVENS RESULTS
The No. 24 Stevens Institute of Technology men's tennis team was unable to overcome an early doubles deficit Saturday in a 6-3 road loss to No. 12 Case Western Reserve University.
The loss dropped Stevens to 5-5 while Case Western moved to 13-7.
Case Western got on the board first with a, 8-2 win at first doubles over junior
Matthew Heinrichand freshman
Danny Polk. The Spartans extended the lead at No. 3 with an 8-3 win over sophomores
Antonio Perich and
Michael Feldman, but Stevens bounced back with a 9-8 win at No. 2 for junior
Ben Foran and freshman
Kyle Henry.
The win was the second of the year for the junior, freshman combo.
Polk picked-up with 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 5, but Case Western took the wins at second, third, fourth, and sixth singles to take the match. Heinrich won a 7-5, 7-5 grinder at No. 1 to give him the71
stsingles win of his career.
The mark for Heinrich is good for sole possession of second on the program's all-time singles wins list.