BOSTON- Stony Brook University and Binghamton University posted semifinal wins to advance to the title match of the 2004 America East Men's Tennis Championship today at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven, Conn. The Seawolves and Bearcats will meet in the championship final on Sunday in a rematch of last year's title contest, with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
Stony Brook used victories at second, third and fifth singles, coupled with domination in the doubles competition to post a 4-0 win over Boston University and advance to its second consecutive America East Men's Tennis Championship final. The Seawolves Michael Crooks (6-0, 6-2 over Barrett Wolf), Alamgir Wali (6-1, 6-2 over Nick Ganias) and Jean-Francois Robitaille (6-1, 6-2 over Karim Zahran) clinched three of the four points needed to claim a team victory as they won the aforementioned singles matches. Tal Meir (6-2, 2-2 led Geoffrey Wagner), Egil Aronsen (6-1, 4-3 led Adam Siegel) and Philippe Amireault (6-1, 5-1 led Ross Lohr) were all leading their singles events for Stony Brook when the team match was decided.
SBU started its match off by taking the doubles point as Aronsen and Robitaille combined to defeat Wolf and Lohr (8-3) and Crooks teamed up with James Carpenter to down Topher Bertone-Ledford and Ganias (8-0). Meir and Wali were leading Wagner and Siegel (6-3) when the two of the three doubles victories needed to win the point was decided.
In the day's other semifinal, Binghamton recorded a 4-1 victory over University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to advance to its second consecutive America East Men's Tennis Championship final. Binghamton came away with the doubles point as the Bearcat Richemn Mourad-Juan Garcia (9-7 over James Tyler and Mike Keller) and Brian O'Connor-Edwin Gerard (8-2 over Mikhail Kouznetsov and Mehrban Iranshad) teams posted victories. Dan Hanegby and Steve Spencer of Binghamton were deadlocked with Josef Novotny and Luis Baraldi (8-8) when the doubles point was awarded to the Bearcats.
Singles competition started with a UMBC win as Novotny downed Hanegby (6-3, 6-4) at first singles, but Binghamton responded with victories at third, fourth and fifth singles to move on. O'Connor (6-1, 6-0 over Kouznetsov), Spencer (6-4, 6-2 over Baraldi) and Gerard (6-0, 7-7 over Djan Gusmao) recorded those three singles wins.
Stony Brook and Binghamton will square off on Sunday (10:30 a.m.), with the championship on the line. The Bearcats were victorious in both of last season's meetings between the two, including a 4-3 win in the 2003 America East Men's Tennis Championship final, but the Seawolves posted a 4-3 win earlier this season over Binghamton on a neutral court in Burlington, Vt.
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.