The Binghamton men’s tennis team endured its 11th straight loss on Saturday, falling, 6-1, to St. John’s at the USTA National Tennis Center.
In their defeat, the Bearcats (2-11, 0-2 MAC) were able to grab their first point in the month of March. However, after facing ranked opponents in its last five matches, Binghamton was hoping to win more than one point against the unranked Red Storm.
“When you’re losing a lot of matches, it can be hard to stay positive,” BU head coach Nick Zieziula said.
Even though the Bearcats were unable to snap their losing streak, BU found some positives to take away from the match. Sophomores Frenk Kote and Douglas Notaris won the third doubles match, 6-1, dominating in a spot that has been weak for the Bearcats in recent weeks.
“It was great to see Frenk and Doug step up,” Zieziula said. “The way they played was excellent — they implemented plays we were working on during the week. They kept running those plays the whole way through the match.”
Notaris — who again got the nod in place of the injured Thomas Caputo — nearly won his singles match, winning the first set before narrowly dropping the second and third sets to Red Storm senior Vasili Caripi in his 4-6, 7-6 (2), 10-8 defeat.
Bearcats junior Sid Hazarika also lost his match in three sets, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, to St. John’s junior Lucas Hejhal. Hazarika has not won a singles point since Feb. 20 against Dartmouth, but Zieziula has had patience with his top singles player.
“Even though he ended up losing the match, he stuck with the game plan,” Zieziula said. “The results will come eventually.”
With just over a week before the Bearcats resume MAC play against Buffalo, they will have to turn all of the small positives into points, games, sets and ultimately matches if they plan to find success in the conference tournament. Considering the amount of travel and the quality of the opponents that BU has had to endure this season, there is certainly hope for the upcoming conference matches against Buffalo and Toledo, as Binghamton will have two home matches in a row for the first time this season.
The Bearcats are scheduled to travel March 27-29 to compete in the Middle Tennessee State Invitational from the Buck Bouldin Tennis Complex in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.