At the Cleveland State Invitational this weekend, the Binghamton men’s tennis team put on impressive performances at the Medical Mutual Tennis Pavilion, obtaining gritty wins while facing national competition. The three-day tournament held in Cleveland, Ohio highlighted the Bearcats’ tenacity, especially with senior Ludovico Cestarollo’s determination to reach the finals, which is exactly what he accomplished.
As a fourth seed, Cestarollo was earning wins in sweeping fashion until he finally lost a set in the semifinals against Youngstown State senior Danylo Veremeichuk, who was the eighth seed. After finally battling his way to the finals, he lost to junior Nico Mostardi of Cleveland State, a two seed and three-time champion of the tournament. Despite the losses, Cestarollo showed off his skills in his six performances, including doubles matches that featured freshman Dylan Friedman and junior Kushaan Nath.
“[Cestarollo] had a great weekend, fighting for six combined singles and doubles wins despite being sick and dinged up,” said BU head coach Nick Zieziula. “It was great to see him work through that to reach the finals.”
Among Cestarollo’s matches, the Bearcats’ singles and doubles teams featured varying degrees of success on the court. Senior Inigo Saez and junior Tiago Lourenco both saw three wins and one loss in their singles bracket, respectively. Both dropped their opening matches. Saez lost to freshman Raul Teichmann of Cleveland State University and Lourenco fell to freshman Clark Bilinovich of CSU. They both came back fiercely to capture three consecutive matches in the back draw.
On the doubles side, Cestarollo joined Friedman, working well together to take two matches, but then turned in a loss against freshmen David Pata and Mikko Malinen of Northern Illinois University in a heated quarterfinals match.
“We built up a lot of confidence this weekend by working on our grit and toughness,” Zieziula said. “We didn’t get all the results we wanted, but we were really committed to working on critical items. I think we are ready for the MAC Indoor event and it will be fun to see how we do in a strong field.”
The Bearcats’ season continues this weekend when the team travels to Kalamazoo, Michigan for the MAC Indoor Championship, hosted by Western Michigan. The three-day meet begins on Friday, Nov. 9 and runs through the rest of the weekend.