The Binghamton University men’s tennis team (11-10) concluded its regular season this past weekend in familiar fashion with mixed results in the win-loss column. Last Wednesday the Bearcats traveled down to West Point and took a highly competitive match from Army, 4-3. They returned home Sunday and lost an even more competitive match to Concordia College, the No. 12 team in the nation, 4-3.

On Wednesday, after Army swept the doubles matches and took the first two singles duals to jump out to a 3-0 lead, Binghamton junior Sebastian Dietz led the comeback against the Black Knights with an impressive three-set victory over freshman Jordan Girdley. Freshman Sven Vloedgraven earned Binghamton’s second point of the contest with a dominating 6-2, 6-2 win over sophomore Bruno Licivero at fourth singles.

The fifth singles point was a bit tougher for the Bearcats to take as freshman sensation Arnav Jain was pushed to a third set by Johnny Lucero before putting it away 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-2. With the match suddenly tied 3-3, the sixth singles dual became the decisive point in the match. Senior Gregoire Berner responded by putting freshman Josh Krieter down 6-4, 6-2, securing Binghamton’s first-ever victory over Army.

Head coach Adam Cohen was pleased that Binghamton finally defeated Army but downplayed the significance of the victory.

“I expected to win,” Cohen said. “We have a better team top to bottom and for us it almost shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Moving forward I expect to beat that team every year now.”

The impressive play at the bottom of the lineup was not exclusive to the Army match, as the latter portion of Cohen’s lineup has been clutch all season. Bearcats playing out of the fourth to sixth position this season are a combined 39-24 in duals. Jain, who has played the vast majority of the season in the bottom half of the order, has won eight consecutive duals and is 15-2 overall.

“Jain has done a good job,” said Cohen. “The goal of the whole recruiting process was to bring in enough guys so that we’d have better depth [and] be strong at the bottom of the lineup, and it’s paid off for us.”

After slaying the Black Knights, the Bearcats found themselves clipped by Concordia. Jain continued his win streak with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 victory over sophomore Henning Ruenz at fourth singles. Vloedgraven was the only other Bearcat to win a singles dual as he disposed of sophomore Nik Boerger 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the second singles contest. Vloedgraven, who finished the season 14-5 in singles duals, also played well in doubles as he teamed with Dietz for an 8-4 victory at second doubles. The doubles point for Binghamton was clinched by the strong play of Berner and senior captain Faisal Mohamed, who battled Boerger and sophomore Alex Grubin for a 9-7 first singles victory. The Bearcats became Concordia’s 10th consecutive victim, as the Clippers improved to a stellar 14-2 on the year.

“It was disappointing to lose, but at the same time it prepared us for this weekend [the America East Conference championship], as we were able to play some competitive matches in the conditions we may see this weekend weather-wise,” said Cohen.

The AE tournament will take place this upcoming weekend in New Haven, Conn. Seeding will be announced later this week and Binghamton is expected to be a top three seed, if not the No. 1 seed. However, Cohen noted that he didn’t think seeding really meant all that much at all.

“The team that plays the best and executes on the big points is the team that’s going to win the conference championship,” he said.

Binghamton has won the tournament three times but was eliminated in the semifinals last season by eventual champion Maryland-Baltimore County.