After winning four of its last five matches, the Binghamton University men’s tennis team continued its hot streak as it hosted its only home matches of the season at the West Gym Courts, defeating University at Buffalo and Fairleigh Dickinson University this past weekend.
The Bearcats (8-13) matched their largest margin of victory this season as they defeated Buffalo 6-1, but then set a new mark as they shut out FDU 7-0. Binghamton dropped only one of 14 matches on the day.
Doubles play didn’t seem to be much of a challenge for BU against either team as it swept each of its matches. Against Buffalo, the Bearcats triumphed 8-6 in first doubles with the team of senior Sven Vloedgraven and junior Gilbert Wong; 8-1 in second doubles with the team of junior Alexandre Haggai and senior Arnav Jain and 8-2 in third doubles with the team of sophomores Bastian Bornkessel and Ruben Devos. Against FDU, Vloedgraven and Wong won 8-1 at first doubles, Bornkessel and Devos won 8-4 at second doubles and Haggai and junior Rafael Rodrigues won 8-4 at third doubles. The team of Vloedgraven and Gilbert Wong took both of its matches at first doubles by a combined score of 16-7.
On the singles side, Vloedgraven and Jain each took home two victories on the day in straight sets. Vloedgraven, ranked No. 101 in the nation, is now 29-7 overall and 18-2 in duals while Jain improved to 23-9 and 18-3 in duals. He now has 98 career wins. Haggai also won both of his matches in straight sets, while Wong took his first match in straight sets and his second in three sets. Devos, junior Evan Algier and senior Andreas Danielsson each won their only singles matches of the day in straight sets.
Binghamton’s only blemish of the day was freshman Ruben Haggai’s close loss to Jason Simon, 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (10-7).
Despite beginning their season 2-12, the Bearcats have caught fire of late and are 6-1 since their disappointing start. But according to head coach Adam Cohen, the team hasn’t been doing anything differently to right the ship.
“There’s no real difference in preparation,” he said. “We’ve played tough matches the whole season and our guys [have just tried to] get better from match to match.”
The Bearcats are set to head to the University of Hartford on Saturday for their regular season finale, where they will face off against the Hawks in addition to Stony Brook University. And with the America East Championship looming on April 29, seeding is in the back of Cohen’s mind.
“If we beat Stony Brook and Hartford this weekend, then it would be likely that we would be seeded first,” he said. “But that doesn’t guarantee anything, that’s just a number. We just have to continue to keep working and try to play our best in the next few weeks and try to make it to the NCAAs again.”
Action is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. in Hartford, Conn.