BOSTON- Binghamton University, Boston University and University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) posted first round wins Friday to advance to the semifinals of the 2004 America East Men's Tennis Championship at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven, Conn. Second-seeded UMBC downed seventh-seeded University of New Hampshire, 4-0, while fourth-seeded Boston U. defeated fifth-seeded University of Hartford, 4-3, and third-seeded Binghamton cruised past sixth-seeded Vermont, 4-0.
Boston U. moves on to face top-seeded Stony Brook University in semifinal #1 on Saturday (12 noon). Stony Brook received a first-round bye in the seven-team conference championship. UMBC and Binghamton survived first round action and will square off against one another in semifinal #2 also on Saturday (12 noon). Both matches will be back at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven. The winner of the America East Men’s Tennis Championship, which will be decided Sunday, receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
UMBC earned the doubles point as the Josef Novotny-Luis Baraldi and Mikhail Kouznetsov-Mehrban Iranshad teams defeated the UNH pairs of Brett Teolis-Jonathan Moody and Jay Friedman-Mark Prather, 8-0 and 8-2 respectively. With the doubles point already decided for the Retrievers, James Tyler and Mike Keller led Goldy Sherrill and Tim Clement 5-2 when the match was ended.
In singles competition, Novotny downed Teolis (6-3, 6-0) at first singles, Kouznetsov bested Moody (6-2, 6-1) at third singles and Keller swept Prather (6-0, 6-0) at fifth singles. The Retriever domination continued in the singles matches, which were not finished due to the team match being decided, as Tyler led Sherrill (6-4, 2-0), Djan Gusmao had a 6-0, 5-1 lead on Friedman and Iranshad was on top of Clement 6-3, 5-0.
In the closest and longest men's contest of the day, Hartford earned the doubles point against Boston U. despite failing to advance to the semifinals. The Hawks' Patrick Flint-Jorge Acuna team and Evan Sideman-Dan Kirchner team were victorious 8-3 and 8-4, respectively, over partners Barrett Wolf-Ross Lohr and Topher Bertone-Ledford-Karim Zahran. Clint Broadie and Jeff Hurlbert, also of Hartford, were leading Geoffrey Wagner and Adam Siegel, 7-5, as the match ended.
At first singles, Flint gave Hartford a 2-point advantage, 2-0, as he defeated Wagner (7-5, 7-5). The Terriers got their first point of the day as Wolf downed Hurlbert (6-3, 3-6, 6-4) at second singles. Following Broadie's win over Nick Ganias (6-3, 6-4) at third singles Hartford held a 3-1 edge. Boston University then won three straight at fourth, fifth and sixth singles as Siegel (6-3, 6-3), Zahran (1-6, 6-2, 7-6) and Lohr (4-6, 7-5, 6-2) defeated Sideman, Acuna and Kirchner.
The final men's match of the first round was another sweep as Binghamton rolled past Vermont, 4-0. At second and third doubles, the Bearcats were victorious as the Richemn Mourad-Juan Garcia and Brian O'Connor-Edwin Gerard teams recorded 8-3 and 8-4 victories, respectively, over Catamount couples of Sammy Carl-Tom Whittaker and Ethan Bernstein-Brendan Matthews. When the doubles competition was in hand, UVM's duo of Eric Conway and Matthew Spring was leading Dan Hanegby and Steve Spencer 6-5.
The singles matches proved to be a clean sweep for Binghamton as Hanegby downed Whittaker (6-0, 6-1) at first singles, O'Connor beat Spring (6-1, 6-0) at third singles and Garcia topped Michael Kreitzer (6-0, 6-4) at sixth singles. For the Bearcats, Mourad led Carl (6-2, 5-1) at second singles, Spencer led Conway (6-1, 5-3) at fourth singles and Gerard led Griffin Maloney (6-3, 2-3) at fifth singles, which were all not finished as the team match was decided.
The America East Tennis Championship utilizes a format of three doubles matches and six singles matches. Doubles matches are played first using eight-game pro sets with a 12-point tie-break at eight games all. The team winning two or more of the doubles matches receives one point in the team scoring. The doubles matches are followed by the singles matches using a best two-of-three sets format. Each singles match is worth one point. A minimum of four points is required to win the team match.