The Binghamton men’s tennis team ended its fall tournament circuit this weekend at the Mid American Conference Indoor Championship, hosted by Western Michigan.
It was a rough weekend for Binghamton, as freshman Valentin Bouchet was the only one of eight singles players to record multiple wins for the Bearcats. Playing in the Flight D singles bracket, Bouchet opened his tournament with a win in his first match before dropping his semifinals contest to Buffalo junior Sergio Arevalillo. Bouchet came right back, however, with a win in the third-place match over freshman Nemanja Guzina of Ball State.
Bouchet is one of three freshmen on the Binghamton roster this year, and Bearcat head coach Nick Zieziula acknowledged that tournaments like this are an important step in the development of his first-year players.
“We were able to get all three of the freshmen a lot of matches,” Zieziula said. “I’m confident that those guys will be where they need to be when we get to conference play.”
This was not the first time Arevalillo came up big against the Bearcats. In last year’s MAC Final, Binghamton needed a win from junior Frenk Kote against Arevalillo to stay alive, but was unable to win, despite a 5-1 lead in the third set. Buffalo ended up winning the tournament with a victory, 4-2, over Binghamton.
“As a freshman, to go toe to toe with Sergio, it says a lot about the work Valentin has put in,” Zieziula said of Bouchet.
While this tournament will not affect their regular-season standing in the MAC, the Bearcats approached their last fall competition with intensity. In tennis, preparation and repetition are key, and oftentimes, tournaments like the MAC Championship establish a team’s rhythm before the official season begins. As a team that lost two key players, Robin Lesage and Ismael Dinia, to graduation this offseason, the Bearcats have used their fall tournaments to figure out which combinations work best and who is ready to step up in the spring.
“It’s tough to replace guys like Robin and Ismael because they were very accomplished tennis players, but what our senior class has been able to do this fall is provide great leadership and focus in our training sessions,” Zieziula said.
Binghamton is set to kick off its spring season on January 23 at the University of Connecticut.