As the regular season nears commencement, the Stony Brook University tennis teams, both men and women squads, split a two-game home series against Binghamton and Hartford, respectively, on Saturday.
The women’s team finished its season at 11-7 after beating Hartford, 5-1, in the second game of a morning – afternoon doubleheader on Saturday at the University Courts.
Both teams took on Binghamton in the morning match, and both teams fell behind after sluggish starts.
While it was unable to have much success against Binghamton, the men’s team rallied in its second match against Hartford behind sophomore Nikita Fomin, who refused to drop a single game.
Senior Roope Kailaheimo also played a strong game, defeating his opponent in tight, 7-6, 7-6 straight sets at the No. 3 position against the Hawks.
The women’s squad played Binghamton to a closer morning match, giving the Bearcats no chance to jump to a large lead like what happened to their male counterparts.
The Stony Brook women were a player down and thus defaulted to Binghamton at both the No. 3 doubles slot and the No. 6 singles slot, but they would force the game to be decided by a single game.
Stony Brook was faced with less than favorable odds, being a man down, and needed victories in both double matches in order to earn the point.
While the tandem of junior Nini Lagvilava and freshman Polina Movchan was able to win the first game, the Seawolves fell in a contested second game.
Lagvilava and Movchan continued scorching play by dominating Bearcat opponents in the No. 1 and 2 slots, respectively.
Although senior Prerana Appineni was able to win at the No. 4 single spot, the defaults became too much to overcome as the Seawolves fell despite their solid play, 4-3.
Looking to rebound in the second match of the afternoon, the women’s team took it to Hartford, winning five straight singles sets en route to a 5-1 victory in the second match of the double header.
The men will close out their regular season when Fairfield comes to town on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
Both teams will then head into the America East Championship weekend starting on April 27 through Aprl 29 in Queens, N.Y. at the USTA National Tennis Center.
With just Fairfield left on the men’s team schedule, the men look to push their 9-9 record past 0.500 with a victory against the Stags.
