Top-seeded University of Hartford will seek its first conference title since 1995 when it plays Stony Brook University in the America East Tennis Championship at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven. The Hawks defeated Boston University, 4-0, to earn the right to play the Seawolves, who defeated Binghamton University, 4-3, in their first America East Championship semifinal appearance Saturday. The championship will be played at 9 a.m. weather permitting or following the America East Women's Championship, which is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. if forced indoors.
Hartford's Pedja Zdravkovic, Pat Flint and Cristoffer Hartmann were all singles winners in straight sets. Zdravkovic and Pat Flint and Jeff Hurlbert and Hartmann teamed for the doubles wins.
Stony Brook's depth proved too much for Binghamton in its four-hour match. The Bearcats earned the doubles point when Akshay Rao and Dmitri Litvak defeated Jan Pilgram-Larsen and Gareth Williams, 8-6, and Steve Spencer and Krishna Vallabhaneni downed Philippe Amireault and James Carpenter, 8-5. Stony Brook's Egil Anonsen and David Hewitt were 8-4 winners over Brad Sherwood and Brad Davidoff in the other doubles match, but the Bearcats were awarded the team point after taking two-of-three matches.
The singles matches saw Binghamton's Rao defeat Pilgram Larsen, 6-3, 6-3 at number one singles. Anonsen got one back for the Seawolves at number two singles with a comeback 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 win over Litvak. Davidoff's 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 win for Binghamton over Williams at number three singles was followed by three-set wins by Stony Brook at number four, five and six singles. Amireault defeated Sherwood, 5-7, 6-2, 6-0 at number four singles. Hewitt downed Spencer, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 at number five singles and Carpenter beat Evan Gottlob, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 at number six.
In other action, University of Vermont defeated University of New Hampshire, 4-0, in the fifth-place match. The Catamounts received singles wins from Zeljko Knezevic, David Levin and Johann Liljengren and doubles wins from Levin and Matt Spring, and Liljengren and Jon Cooper.
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.