Early flashes of competitive spirit were on full display as the Binghamton men’s tennis team kicked off their season at The Star Group Binghamton Championships. The three-day tournament consisted of round-robin singles and doubles that featured teams from Buffalo, NJIT, St. Thomas Aquinas, Bucknell and Army at BU’s Lane Tennis Center. The Bearcats picked up a handful of singles and doubles victories, with one of those coming from freshman Dan Pergel, who played well in his Bearcat debut. He defeated Army freshman AJ Woodman in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.

“I was really pleased with Dan’s performance,” said Binghamton head coach Nick Zieziula. “Not surprising, given the focus and intensity that he’s put into practice … His maturity really came through.”

The Bearcats added a number of new recruits to their roster this season, one of these being Pergel, who hails from Ottawa, Ontario. Zieziula and his team were looking for specific attributes in this year’s recruiting class to give the Bearcats a competitive edge against other top programs. Pergel seems to fit the criteria well.

“One of the big characteristics that we were looking for in this year’s recruiting class was work ethic and consistency of focus,” Zieziula said. “You talk to not only Pergel’s coaches, but people around the club where he trained up at Ottawa and everybody had the same things to say in terms of how serious he took things and how much of a worker bee he is. We saw that over the first few weeks of the semester here.”

Another Bearcat who shined in his collegiate debut was freshman Michael Pawlowicz. Also hailing from Ontario, Pawlowicz missed participating in some of the competition because of a personal conflict, but was able to secure a victory in his singles event.

“He’s had a tough go with a couple of fluky things off the court,” Zieziula said. “He’s been such a good sport with dealing with a couple of these bounces that haven’t gone his way. His maturity and overall mentality and seriousness was a big thing we saw in him in the recruiting process. He’s shown the exact same thing since he’s gotten here and I’m really happy for him to be able to get in on Sunday and at least get one singles match in.”

The Bearcats received additional support from junior Alejandro Pena, who made the finals in his singles flight, defeating opponents from NJIT and Army.

The doubles pairings consisted of sophomore Dylan Friedman and senior Tiago Lourenco, along with senior Kushaan Nath and Pena, who won three out of their four respective matches over the weekend.

Throughout the event, the Bearcats exhibited a solid showing that may give them positive momentum for upcoming matches. Overall, Zieziula seemed pleased with how the team battled on the court.

“The recap conversation with the guys was very positive,” Zieziula said. “We’re very happy with the main things we’ve been focused on in practice, [it] really came through on the weekend.”

With the season just underway, the Bearcats have much to improve upon as the season progresses, but the team’s competitive mentality and attitude are attributes they are looking to collectively maintain in the future.

“We’ve got a lot to work on — it’s very early in the year,” Zieziula said. “The big thing was our competitive spirit, our attitude, our problem solving where the wheels were going all the way through to the last point whether we won or lost. We didn’t let the score impact us.”

The team will return in a few weeks to compete at the ITA Northeast Regional hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. The event will take place from Thursday, Oct. 17 to Monday, Oct. 21 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.