Much like the Houston Rockets, the Binghamton University men’s tennis team was virtually unstoppable for much of March. However, as the Rockets fell apart at the end of the month, the Bearcats seemed to follow suit, dropping their last two matches.

Binghamton went 5-2 against Western Michigan, the reigning Mid-American Conference champion. Binghamton’s only two points in the contest came from sophomore Moshe Levy and freshman Arnav Jain. Levy battled freshman Kazuya Komada for the first set, 7-6 (4), before breezing to a 6-0 second set victory to take the dual. Jain also had to battle WMU senior Bryan Norville, to win the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (4). He coasted 6-2 in the second set to capture the win in the fifth singles dual.

The Bearcats then squared off against Buffalo on Sunday in a heartbreaking loss. The Bulls, who had a 4-14 record going into the contest, stunned Binghamton by coming back from a huge deficit to win the match 4-3. The Bearcats, despite dropping the doubles point to Buffalo, appeared to be coasting to an easy victory after winning the first three singles points, all in straight sets. However, the Bearcats’ 3-1 lead quickly disintegrated into a 3-3 tie after seniors Gregoire Berner and Alex Dobrin dropped their fourth and fifth singles matches in three sets respectively.

With the game down to the wire, all eyes were on the sixth singles duel between freshman Andreas Danielsson and Buffalo’s Ezra Bernstein. Danielsson handled the fellow freshman in the first set 6-2, but Bernstein bounced back in the second set by battling to win the set 7-5. Bernstein easily defeated Danielsson 6-2 in the decisive third set to not only win the dual, but the entire match for the Bulls as well.

BU head coach Adam Cohen, who has praised his team’s effort and performance repeatedly throughout the season, voiced frustration with his squad’s performance this past weekend.

“We could’ve had a better performance,” Cohen said. “We’ve been losing a lot of close matches … people know we got a pretty good team, [but] we have to play like we’re the favorites.”

Cohen was quick to point out that a loss like the one his squad suffered to Buffalo, while never a good feeling, is very much a part of the game. “You win some of those, lose some of them … we played OK.”

Despite the dim finish to March, April has high potential to be bright for the Bearcats, with six of their remaining nine matches scheduled to be held on their home court. The Bearcats have been true road warriors this season, playing 16 of their 17 matches thus far on the road.

“It’s definitely an advantage for us to be on courts we’re familiar with,” Cohen said. “It’s [also] nice to sleep in your own bed.”

Binghamton steps into action Friday when they play both Farleigh Dickinson University and New Jersey Institute of Technology on the road. After getting to sleep in their own beds for a change, they will host Quinnipiac on Sunday on the Events Center courts.