The four Bearcats representing the Binghamton men’s tennis team dropped seven of their 11 matches at the Cornell Fall Indoor Invitational this weekend. The disappointing showing concluded what has been a roller coaster fall for the team.

The end of the ride did feature a nice peak, however, thanks to the stellar play of freshman Evan Algier. The Poughkeepsie-native bounced back from an opening round defeat to win three consecutive matches and in the process captured the Flight C consolation title. Algier looked very impressive as a singles player in his first collegiate season, posting a 5-2 record. Doubles play has unfortunately not been as kind to Algier. He is now 0-4 as a doubles player after he and fellow freshman Andreas Danielsson lost their opening round match to a Duquesne duo.

The roller coaster quickly experienced a big fall as Danielsson, sophomore Moshe Levy and freshman Sven Vloedgraven combined to go 1-4 in singles play. The lone victory came from Vloedgraven, who dominated Army’s Sean Harris 6-1, 6-1 in the opening round of the Flight A draw, but then lost in the second round 6-2, 6-3 to Fairleigh Dickinson sophomore Phil Stephens.

The exhibition at the Ivy League’s biggest and youngest school came a mere week after three Bearcats, including Levy, played impressively in the Wilson ITA Northeast Regional.

At the ITA Regional, senior captain Faisal Mohamed rolled off three upset wins to advance to the Round of 16. His third victim, Columbia’s Bogdan Borta, was the tournament’s sixth-seeded player.

Transfer Sebastian Dietz also enjoyed success at the Regional. The 18th seed received an opening round bye then posted a victory in the Round of 64. He was defeated in the third round by Princeton’s Peter Capkovic 4-6, 6-1, 6-0. Dietz was one of only two men to even win a set from Capkovic who advanced all the way to the final four.

Dietz and Mohamed also participated in the doubles draw and were ranked ninth. They won their opening round match, handling a Columbia pair relatively easily. They then battled the Pennsylvania duo of Fox and Schwartz, but were ultimately defeated 8-6 in the Round of 32 match.

Levy fell in his opening round match to Nolan Thomas of Boston College. The sophomore missed a majority of the pre-season recovering from a shoulder injury that also nagged him during the latter part of the 2006-2007 season.

After a fall season that featured an almost balanced number of ups and downs, the men’s tennis team is hoping for a spring season with many more peaks than valleys. The ride begins on Jan. 26 at Penn State.