The growing pains continued for the Binghamton University men’s tennis team this past weekend at Boston College and Brown University, where the Bearcats dropped both decisions, 5-2.
On Saturday, the BC Eagles soared past the Bearcats (1-5) thanks to freshman Erik Kreutzer’s come-from-behind victory over junior-transfer Gregoire Berner. Berner handily controlled the first set and was leading the second set when Kreutzer mounted his comeback. Berner did not win a game in the decisive third set.
“That was a win we needed to have at that point in the match,” said Bearcat head coach Adam Cohen. “That one slipped away for sure. It was disappointing to see that happen.”
Binghamton’s two points against BC came from senior Alex Dobrin and freshman Arnav Jain. Dobrin, playing out of third singles, dropped the first set against the Eagles’ Jason Sechrist before dominating the last two sets for the victory. Jain earned his second collegiate singles victory out of the sixth spot with a 6-4, 7-6 victory over Brian Locklear.
The loss to Brown on Sunday was much more lopsided. Brown, the 75th-ranked team in the nation, handily defeated the Bearcats. The Bearcats, however, did sneak out with two singles victories thanks to freshman Sven Vloedgraven and senior Jon Bonnet. Vloedgraven, who also played very well in a loss against Boston College, defeated junior Noah Gardner 6-3, 6-3 at fourth singles. Bonnet dropped the first set to freshman Charlie Posner before taking the next two 6-4, 10-8 for the victory. Bonnet was the only Bearcat to win at Brown last season.
The match against Brown also marked the second consecutive weekend in which one of Cohen’s top players had to retire from a singles match due to injury. Senior captain Faisal Mohamed, the team’s No. 1 singles player, was trailing in the second set when an undisclosed injury forced him to forfeit the match. Last weekend against Dartmouth, junior Sebastian Dietz also retired due to injury. Dietz, Cohen’s No. 2 singles player, is out indefinitely with a leg injury. Jain and sophomore Moshe Levy, the team’s third singles player, are battling minor injuries as well.
“We’re besieged with injuries right now,” Cohen said. “Yeah it hurts, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Everybody is continuing to give their best effort … that’s always important.”
The Bearcats will again be on the road this weekend, taking on Hartford, Boston University and Harvard.