After an impressive year that saw Binghamton University’s men’s tennis team win the America East conference title for the second consecutive season, the Bearcats’ tourney dreams came to an end Friday afternoon in College Station, Texas. Despite the huge strides Binghamton’s men’s tennis has been able to make under second-year head coach Adam Cohen √É¢’ including attaining the titles of AE Player of the Year in Sven Vloedgraven and AE Rookie of the Year in Gilbert Wong, making the top four First-Team All-Conference singles players, two Second-Team All-Conference members and the No. 2-ranked doubles duo in the conference all to go along with defeating a nationally ranked opponent √É¢’ the Bearcats continue to struggle to make it out of the first round, with Friday’s loss their fifth first-round defeat in the last seven years.

The Bearcats’ loss came at the hands of No. 15-ranked Texas A&M University. The Aggies feature a strong lineup from top to bottom and, after straight set losses at every position, it is safe to say that the Bearcats were overmatched. The Aggies took the doubles point and the first three singles points before the fourth, fifth or sixth singles matches could even take place. The loss was Binghamton’s eighth of the season and by far the most lopsided of them all. The Aggies have three of the top 50-ranked players in the nation: No. 17-ranked Conor Pollock, No. 47-ranked Wil Spencer and No. 48-ranked Alexey Grigorov. Without a player who could match up with any of them, the “Big Three” won all three singles matchups with relative ease, dropping only 12 combined games to the 36 they won.

“We had a good start, good intensity and energy in the doubles, which we’ve really been working on,” A&M head coach Steve Denton said through an A&M University press release. “We’re going to need that if we’re going to hang in this tournament for a while. It was a solid first match for us. Obviously, everyone is a little bit nervous, because it’s the first match of the NCAA tournament. Binghamton’s players fought hard and were a good first-round test for us. We had to really fight out there, and it was good preparation for us for tomorrow’s second round.” Texas A&M now moves on to face Arizona in the second round.

“Texas A&M is a great team and they showed that today,” Cohen said, through a Binghamton press release. “I’m proud of the way our guys played and represented our University. We’ve had a great year and made some big strides in our program. I’m excited about next year with everyone coming back.”

Next year there will be tremendous expectations for the team. With no graduating seniors it is reasonable to expect the core of this team to remain in place for the next few years, and with added experience there is no reason not to expect the team to make major strides in that time. With the current team in place it can be expected that a tournament victory will happen sooner rather than later.