University of Hartford and University of Vermont posted first round wins Friday to advance to the semifinals of the America East Men's Tennis Championship at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven, Conn. Fourth seeded Hartford downed fifth seeded Boston University, 6-1, and will play top seeded Binghamton University in the first semifinal on Saturday, starting at 1 p.m. Third seeded Vermont advanced with a 6-1 win over sixth seeded University of New Hampshire and will play second seeded Stony Brook University in the Saturday's second semifinal match. Both matches will be played at the Rocky Hill Tennis Center in Rocky Hill, Conn. The winner of the America East Men’s Tennis Championship, which will be decided Sunday, receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.Results
Hartford earned the doubles point by sweeping the three matches. Pedja Zdravkovic and Patrick Flint teamed up to defeat Geoffrey Wagner and Adam Siegel, 8-1, at first doubles, while Jeff Hurlbert and Clint Broadie downed Jason Vinoles and JP Debbink, 8-0, and Christoffer Hartmann and Evan Sideman beat Noel Moossa and Krzysztof Kubacki, 8-4, at second and third doubles, respectively.
Zdravkovic, the two-time Championship Most Outstanding Player, led Hartford to wins in five of the six singles matches, defeating Wagner, 6-1, 6-1, at first singles. The Hawks received wins at second singles, as Flint downed Siegel (6-1, 7-5), third singles, where Hurlbert beat Nick Ganias (6-4, 6-0), fourth singles, behind a 6-3, 6-4 win for Broadie over Moossa, and sixth singles, as Sideman defeated Vinoles, 6-3, 6-3. Boston University garnered its point at fifth singles, as Debbink downed Hartmann in three sets, 7-6 (8-6), 0-6, 10-8.
Vermont won the doubles point as the Catamonts took two of the three doubles matches with Matt Spring and Tom Whitaker defeating New Hampshire's Brett Teolis and Tim Clement, 8-2, at second doubles, and Ethan Bernstein and Eric Conway defeating Ryan Tierney and Mark Prather, 8-3, at third doubles. Kevin O'Keefe and Jonathan Moody defeated Zeljko Knezevic and Jon Cooper, 8-5, at first doubles for New Hampshire.
In singles play, Vermont took five of the six matches, as Spring defeated Teolis (6-0, 6-2), Whitaker defeated Moody (6-2, 7-5), Griffin Maloney downed Tierney (6-1, 6-0), Cooper beat Clement (6-0, 6-1) and Conway defeated Prather (6-2, 6-0) at second through sixth singles, respectively. New Hampshire's O'Keefe earned the Wildcats team point as Vermont's Knezivic retired due to injury down 4-2 in the first set.
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.
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