After earning the No. 50 ranking in the nation, this certainly wasn’t the start to the season that the Binghamton University men’s tennis team was hoping to get off to.

The Bearcats are now 0-2 in dual play this season after suffering 6-1 losses to then-No. 51 East Tennessee State University (now No. 49) and then-No. 66 Cornell University (now No. 64) during the ITA Kickoff Classic held at the University of Virginia. While the opponents were ranked, they were both ranked lower than Binghamton at the time of play. As a result, the Bearcats are now down to No. 59 in the country in the Feb. 8 edition of the ITA rankings.

It’s a contrast to last season’s start, when the team went 5-0 to start the year in dual play, including 5-2 wins over then-No. 70 Brown University and Cornell. The team’s first loss that season came against then-No. 56 Columbia.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is that senior Sven Vloedgraven, the No. 55 player in the nation, is now 0-2 in singles play. He was coming off his second consecutive ITA Northeast Regional singles title in the fall, and had defeated players who were ranked No. 66 and No. 22 in the nation during the fall season. He dropped his first match to unranked Sander Gille of East Tennessee State 6-4, 6-2 and followed that with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to No. 80 Andy Gauthier of Cornell. He and doubles teammate junior Gilbert Wong are 1-1 in doubles play, earning Binghamton its only point in the team’s match against East Tennessee State. Vloedgraven won his first two matches of last season.

Binghamton will have an opportunity to turn things around this weekend as it takes on a pair of opponents at the University of Nebraska. First up is the Western Michigan University Broncos tonight. After dropping their second match of the season in a 7-0 loss to No. 22 Michigan, the Broncos are 4-0 since. Four of the team’s five wins have been by 7-0 scores. Western Michigan is led by seniors Michael Calderone and Kazuya Komada, both of whom were named first-team All-Mid-American Conference last season. Calderone is 5-1 this season and Komada is 4-1 on the year, with each player suffering their only loss in the team’s dual against Michigan.

Following Western Michigan will be host No. 40 Nebraska on Saturday. The Huskers are just 3-3 this season, but that is mainly a result of the schedule: The losses have come to No. 26 Florida State, No. 8 Stanford and No. 23 University of Washington. The last one was only by a 4-3 score. Nebraska beat No. 44 Vanderbilt, who were 38th in the nation at the time. The team features two ranked players: No. 97 Benedikt Lindheim and No. 99 Calin Paar.

The Bearcats are scheduled to face Western Michigan at 6 p.m. tonight, and Nebraska at 9 a.m tomorrow.