It was a weekend of mixed results for the Binghamton University men’s and women’s tennis teams.
The men’s squad traveled to West Point, where it split its opening day matches, topping host Army 4-3 before falling to Yale University, 5-2. The men finished the weekend strong, shutting out St. Bonaventure University 7-0 on Sunday.
The women’s team spent Friday and Saturday at Syracuse University, where the Bearcats suffered a 7-0 sweep at the hands of the Orange before knocking off conference rival Boston University, 5-2.
On Friday, the women’s team (5-8) dropped the first match of its weekend against a Syracuse squad ranked No. 47 in the country. Binghamton senior Jillian Santos took her singles opponent, senior Emily Harman, into three sets before falling 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, while senior Emma Leibowicz dropped her singles match in a tiebreaker in the second set 6-4, 7-6 (10-8). With the loss, the Bearcats extended their all-time winless streak against the Orange to six matches.
On Saturday, the Bearcats grounded out a tough win against America East rival Boston University with three singles matches going into three sets and two sets determined by tiebreakers. The Bearcats quickly found themselves down 2-0 after losing their doubles matchups 2-1 and sophomore Jennifer Fridman dropped her singles match 6-3, 6-2. But then Leibowicz, who had earlier won her doubles matchup, 8-4, knocked off sophomore Amelia Martinez by a score of 6-2, 7-5. Freshman Taylor Hollander won her matchup next by a score of 7-6 (9-7), 6-3. The Bearcats won the next three singles matches. With her three-set singles win (4-6, 7-5, 6-1), senior Marina Bykovskaya climbed into a tie for the No. 9 spot on the Binghamton all-time win list with 66 career wins.
The most dramatic of the matches turned out to be the No. 1 singles as Santos topped her opponent in the tiebreaker of the third set, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3).
“That was just a beautifully played match,” head coach Libby McGovern said. “It was a lot of fun to get to watch [Santos] play at that level, and I know that she is capable of it. She goes out there and plays like that every week, day in and day out at practice and in her matches. It’s great to see some of the matches go in her way unlike the match against Syracuse, where she lost a tight three-setter. But she played beautifully and it was a very well thought out match.”
The match marked Santos’ 83rd career win. She is now just one win away from tying for fourth place all time at Binghamton.
The men’s team (7-10) opened its weekend by sneaking past Army 4-3. The Bearcats fought back from dropping their first two singles matches with senior Alexandre Haggai falling 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 singles and junior Bastian Bornkessel losing 6-3, 6-4 at No. 3 singles. But things turned around for Binghamton when freshman Robin Lesage knocked off his opponent 6-2, 7-5, freshman Ismael Dinia easily dispatched his opponent 6-1, 6-1, junior Ruben Devos won his game 6-2, 7-6 and freshman Ruben Haggai won his game 6-3, 7-6.
The Bearcats lost the doubles point later that day, which did not matter, as they had already notched up four points in the singles matches.
Later in the evening, the Bearcats dropped their match against Yale, 5-2. Binghamton started out on a strong note as Alexandre Haggai beat junior Marc Powers, who is ranked second in the eastern division, at No. 1 singles, but the Bearcats quickly dropped three matches to the Bulldogs. At No. 4 singles, Dinia got another win for Binghamton to cut the deficit to 3-2. The comeback seemed to be nearing completion as Ruben Haggai served for the match during the second set at No. 5 singles, but Haggai lost the point and eventually ended up losing the set on tiebreakers. He could not recover from the second-set loss and eventually lost the third set, 6-3.
The Bearcats lost two of their three double matches to the Bulldogs, giving Yale the final doubles’ point.
The Bearcats rebounded Sunday, sweeping St. Bonaventure, 7-0.
The men’s team is scheduled to travel to Harvard University for a 2 p.m. match on Friday. The women’s team is set to face Fairleigh Dickinson University at 3 p.m. today.