This past weekend, the Binghamton University men’s tennis team headed to Harvard University to try and break out of its early-season funk as it competed in the ECAC Indoor Championship. While the Bearcats posted their first wins of the season and made the finals of the event — which features the top 10 teams in the Northeast in a team dual format — they fell just short in the final round.

First up on Saturday following Binghamton’s first-round bye was sixth-seeded Yale University. The Bearcats, seeded third and ranked No. 67 in the country, didn’t fare well in their doubles matches. Dropping all three matches, the Bearcats permitted Yale to pick up the doubles point and jump ahead to a 1-0 lead. Singles play told a different story, however, as Binghamton was able to take four of the six matches to garner a 4-3 victory.

Binghamton senior Sven Vloedgraven, who is ranked No. 81 in the country, led the way with his 6-2, 7-5 win. Senior Arnav Jain and junior Gilbert Wong also had impressive two-set victories, winning 7-6, 6-3 and 6-4, 6-4, respectively. Junior Rafael Rodrigues came through with a clutch three-set win, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

The 4-3 win on Saturday was Binghamton’s first of the semester, as the team had previously lost four straight matchups. The win also sent Binghamton into the semifinals, where it battled Princeton University on Sunday.

Princeton, who was the second seed and ranked No. 74, was coming off a dominating 6-1 win against 10th-seeded St. John’s University.

This time, Binghamton switched up its game plan in order to get its doubles game back on track. BU head coach Adam Cohen separated Vloedgraven and Wong to help balance out each matchup. It worked. Vloedgraven and sophomore Bastian Bornkessel ousted their opponents 8-4, while Wong and sophomore Ruben Devos also picked up a victory, winning 8-5. With the doubles point, Binghamton only had to win three single matches to advance.

After dropping the first set in his singles matchup, 6-2, Vloedgraven was able to bounce-back and grab the next two sets, 6-3, 6-1, to give him the win. Jain also won again on Sunday, 7-6, 6-3, and junior Alexandre Haggai chipped in with a two-set victory, winning 6-4, 7-6. Binghamton won another close matchup by a final score of 4-3 to advance to the finals.

The stage was set on Monday afternoon as the Bearcats met top-seeded Cornell University. On Jan. 30, Cornell trounced Binghamton by a score of 6-1 at the ITA Kickoff Classic at University of Virginia. Yesterday, the Bearcats were looking for some revenge.

The recently readjusted doubles strategy didn’t work against the Big Red as the Bearcats lost all three doubles matchups. Down 1-0, the Bearcats needed to take at least four of the six singles matches to win.

Vloedgraven and Jain won their singles matches for the third time this weekend, winning by scores of 6-1, 7-5 and 7-5, 6-3, respectively. Haggai also turned in a dominating performance on Monday, winning 6-2, 6-1. Rodrigues, however, lost his match 6-2, 6-0, as did junior Evan Algier, 6-3, 6-3.

With the other six matches being split, the deciding matchup came between Wong and Cornell senior Evan Bernstein. Wong took the first set, 6-4, to give him some early momentum. Bernstein came back, however, and took the second set with ease, winning 6-1. With a set apiece, the third set went all the way down to the wire. Tying in games, 6-6, the two needed a final tiebreaker to settle it. Bernstein was able to get the best of Wong in the tiebreaker and won the match by a final score of 4-6, 6-1, 6-6 (7-3). As a result Cornell managed to scrape out a 4-3 victory over the Bearcats.

Despite the loss, the Bearcats showed some reassuring signs of life over the weekend after having started the season with a few tough losses.

Next up, the Bearcats are set to head to Columbia University on Friday, where they are slated to begin play at 2 p.m.