The Binghamton men’s tennis team was unable to find its first win of the season this weekend after dropping both of their matches to Ball State and Toledo. The Bearcats’ tandem of sophomore Michael Pawlowicz and freshman Shourya Verma won their doubles match against Ball State — it was the only match that the Bearcats won over the weekend.
In their first meet of the weekend, the Bearcats (0-5, 0-5 Mid-American Conference) struggled against Ball State (13-3, 2-2 MAC) who were able to win two doubles matches and all seven singles matches. While Binghamton was unable to pick up a single point during the meet, Pawlowicz and Verma’s 6-3 win during the second doubles match provided some momentum for the Bearcats during the opening games. However, BU dropped their final doubles match and was swept in singles. Both Pawlowicz and Verma lost their singles matches in three sets.
“The start of the doubles was strong, we weren’t hitting the ball great but we were problem-solving well and put ourselves in good positions,” said Binghamton head coach Nick Ziezula, per bubearcats.com. “We need to find a way to keep that going the whole way through. We have a lot to work on in singles. We have to give credit to Ball State, they have a solid squad this year but we gave away too many streaks of errors to hang in on some courts.”
In the second meet of the weekend, the Bearcats lost to Toledo (6-5, 2-3 MAC). While Pawlowicz was once again a bright spot for BU, the sophomore fell just short of victory in his 7-6, 6-4 loss to junior Cole Schoults during his singles match. He was also was part of the closest doubles match of the afternoon, losing 5-4 alongside Verma. Freshman Joshua Kim and sophomore Dan Pergel also fought hard on the doubles front, winning four sets but ultimately falling 6-4. The sweep by Toledo marked the second straight 7-0 loss for the Bearcats.
The Bearcats will continue their season when they host Northern Illinois on Friday, April 9. The meet is set to start at noon at the Binghamton Tennis Center in Binghamton, New York.