The Binghamton University men’s tennis team faced two formidable opponents over the weekend but was unable to pull off its first win of the spring season.
On Friday the No. 59 Bearcats lost to unranked Western Michigan 4-3 in a neutral-site match at the Nebraska Tennis Center. In singles matches, seniors Sven Vloedgraven and Arnav Jain came away with Binghamton’s only two wins as they beat Kazuya Komada and Simon Blomberg, respectively. Vloedgraven, who lost his first two matches of the season, regained his winning form with a straight set victory over Komada. Jain won his singles match in straight sets by a score of 7-5, 6-1.
Although the singles players did not have a great showing against Western Michigan, the doubles teams of Vloedgraven and junior Gilbert Wong, and Jain and junior Alexandre Haggai each won their matches 9-8, which helped secure the doubles point for the Bearcats.
On Saturday, Binghamton went up against the Nebraska Cornhuskers and struggled against the No. 40 ranked team in the country. The Bearcats lost 5-2, but once again got strong performances from Vloedgraven and Jain. Vloedgraven opened his match against Christopher Aumueller by winning the first set 7-5. However, he lost the next set 6-1. That set up the decisive third set, which he won in a super tiebreaker, 10-8.
Jain did not have an easy time against his opponent, Benedikt Lindheim. Lindheim gave Jain a tough battle, narrowly winning the first set 7-6 and losing the second set 6-4. Jain showed his grit during the super tiebreaker and won 10-3. Jain is now 3-1 in dual play this season.
Despite Vloedgraven’s and Jain’s impressive victories, the rest of the singles players struggled once again. Haggai, the Bearcats’ No. 2 singles player, lost in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. Wong and sophomores Ruben Devos and Bastian Bornkessel also fell in singles play.
“We just need to play better, plain and simple,” said Binghamton head coach Adam Cohen. “We have yet to win a match at 4, 5 and 6 singles and we have yet to win a match at third doubles. That’s something that has to improve for us to get better results.”
In doubles play, Haggai and Jain were the only victorious duo, winning a close match 9-8.
The Bearcats are now 0-4 in the spring season, having dropped matches to both ranked and unranked opponents. For a team ranked in the top 60 in the nation, there are worries going around.
“I’m concerned, obviously,” Cohen said. “We need our guys to play better. Our guys have the ability to play well … Right now, some of the guys can’t bring it from the practice courts to the match courts, and that’s what’s hurting us the most.”
Cohen feels that it is possible changes could be made to the lineup.
“If the guys that have been losing, if they continue to lose, then obviously we need to make some changes moving forward,” he said. “So we may be giving some other guys a chance, but it’d be premature saying, ‘This guy, XYZ, is going to play.’ I mean we haven’t determined anything yet.”
Binghamton is set to travel to participate in the ECAC Championship on Saturday.