So often fans think that sports stories finish with happy endings.

Things always seem to work out perfectly: the third-string quarterback throws four touchdowns, gets the ring and gets the girl. The hard-luck goalie, a chance in overtime ‘ and makes the game-winning save. Or the seven-foot center, with the media declaring him ‘done,’ dominates the inside to win one last championship.

But sometimes sports can be cruel. Such is life.

That was the case this weekend at the America East women’s tennis championships, held at Yale’s spectacular facility.

Zeynep Altinay and Lya Kushnirovich had been there before, three times in fact. Twice they’d made it to the Championship ‘ and lost. Mighty Boston University, in fact, had knocked out Binghamton three straight years.

This year was their turn. This year ‘Z’ and ‘Kush’ would put it all together. This year, their last in Bearcat green and white, the team would finally defeat the dynasty.

This year, it turned out, just wasn’t meant to be. The Bearcats, the second seed, were upset by third-seeded UMBC in Saturday’s semifinal. The last singles match of Altinay’s illustrious career was stopped as the team results became final.

Sometimes, sports can be cruel. A Saturday night bus ride home certainly wasn’t the way BU’s two seniors, the best two players in program history, pictured themselves exiting.

This weekend there was no title, no celebration, no joy.

It might not sound like a happy ending, but the fact is that Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Retrievers was no ending at all.

Altinay and Kushnirovich will both graduate, but their impact on the program will be felt for years to come. In their four years, the pair obliterated the standard by which Binghamton tennis players are measured.

At the BU Invitational in September 2003, Quinnipiac smoked Binghamton in 11 of 12 matches. This March, Binghamton went to Quinnipiac and toppled the Bobcats on their own court, 4-3, led by who else: Altinay.

The pair changed the way the conference, the region and the rest of the NCAA views Binghamton tennis. In September of 2003, Binghamton tennis was a fledgling program with a rookie coach, three (sometimes four) walk-ons in the lineup and very limited goals.

Now, in April 2007, Binghamton tennis is a regional powerhouse, graduating two of the conference’s top players, with more than a half-dozen skilled young women, led by sophomore Juliana Umeki, poised to continue the meteoric rise of one of the school’s most-improved programs.

So I guess you could say there was no ‘happy ending’ for Zeynep Altinay and Lya Kushnirovich. Nope. The truth is that for a program that’s become a perennial contender and a regional force, the two record-setting graduates are just the beginning.