Ithaca Sweeps Fisher to Advance into Championship
ITHACA, N.Y. —The Ithaca College men's tennis team advanced into the championship match of the Empire 8 tournament for the 14th straight season thanks to Saturday's 5-0 win over St. John Fisher College.
Ithaca (13-5), the No. 2 seed for the tournament, extended its winning streak to nine with the win over No. 3 Fisher (9-9). The Bombers will now face No. 1 Stevens (17-7) at 11 a.m. in the championship on the Stevens campus in Hoboken, N.J.
The conference champion earns the Empire 8's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III tournament.
Ithaca won five league championships in the last 13 years, the last of which came during the 2009 season.
In the semifinals, junior Wes Davis and freshman Michael Gardiner each posted wins at singles and doubles.
Davis and senior Chris Hayes teamed up for an 8-3 win at first doubles, while Gardiner and juniorNate Wolf posted an 8-2 win at third doubles. Sophomore Lorenzo Viguie-Ramos and freshmanStefan Lazarevic earned an 8-4 win at the second flight as IC took a 3-0 lead into the singles matches.
Gardiner posted a 6-0, 6-0 win at the first singles flight, and Davis earned a 6-2, 6-0 win at the third singles flight to clinch the match for Ithaca. The rest of the singles matches were not finished once IC clinched the match.
The Bombers' only conference loss of the year came to Stevens, which earned the regular-season championship. Stevens has not lost to an Empire 8 opponent since a 5-4 setback against Ithaca on April 10, 2010, a stretch of 48 consecutive matches.
The Ducks are the six-time champions of the Empire 8, while Ithaca is second in championship history with five conference titles.