Making their fifth-straight appearance in the America East Men’s Tennis Championship title match, the top-seeded Stony Brook Seawolves were finally able to come away with their first-ever league crown as they defeated No. 2 Binghamton, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven, Conn. Stony Brook earns America East’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

Complete Day Three Results

The two New York-state rivals squared off in the title match for the fourth-straight season and also for the fourth-straight season the championship went down to the wire with a 4-3 final score, this time in favor of the Seawolves. Michael Crooks’ dramatic victory (4-6, 6-4, 6-1) over Binghamton’s Alex Dobrin at No. 2 singles clinched the match for the Seawolves and earned Crooks Most Outstanding Performer honors of the conference tournament, which is voted on by the league’s head coaches. The rest of the all-championship team will be announced on Monday afternoon.

Stony Brook earned the doubles point as Tal Meir and Crooks teamed up at No. 1 doubles to record a win, while Youssef Fassi-Fehri and Dave Kortum won for the Seawolves at No. 3 doubles. Fassi-Fehri and Kortum also each won their No. 4 and No. 6 singles matches, respectively, to help Stony Brook clinch the title.

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.