FLUSHING, N.Y. – Top seeds held serve
on the first day of the America East Tennis Championship as the Binghamton and
Stony Brook women and Boston U. men all advanced to the semifinal round with
wins. Binghamton took care of Hartford, 4-0, before Stony Brook dealt Albany a
4-1 defeat. Boston U. closed out day one of competition coming from behind to
down Hartford, 4-2.
The
third-seed Bearcats started the day’s action with convincing wins at Nos. 2 and
3 doubles to secure the doubles point. Emma Leibowicz and Jillian Santos posted
an 8-0 victory at the No. 2 spot while Taylor Hollander and Missy Edelblum did
the same at No. 3. In singles play, Binghamton dropped just three games total, winning
all three matches by the final of 6-0, 6-1 to complete the sweep. Marina
Bykovskaya cruised at No. 3 with Katherine Medianik and Edelbum following suit
at No. 4 and No. 6. Binghamton’s Santos and Hartford’s Abby Liu played a
back-and-forth first set at the top spot but the Bearcats clinched the team win
before either could get a win.
Stony
Brook and Albany played a pair of intense and lengthy doubles matches to get
their 4-5 battle started. The Seawolves defaulted at No. 3 doubles giving
Albany an early edge. In the second slot, Stony Brook’s Katherine Hanson and Prerana
Appineni picked up an 8-5 win to set the stage for a thrilling finish at No. 1.
Stony Brook’s Nini Lagvilava and Polina Movchan squared off with Albany’s Rocio
Lopez and Livia Gherman. Lagvilava and Movchan got stronger at the end of the
match en route to a 9-7 win and the doubles point. Movchan and Gherman would
continue their bout at No. 2 singles and Movchan cruised 6-0, 6-0. The
Seawolves went on to drop just five more games in two straight-set wins at No.
4 and No. 6 to clinch the semifinal berth. Albany picked up its lone point by
default in the fifth spot.
To
wrap up the day, the Boston U. men fell behind early to Hartford dropping the
doubles point to the Hawks. Aneil Bhalla and Josh Isaacson took care of
business at No. 1 with a convincing 8-3 win. Not to be outdone, fellow Hawks
Alex Holdstein and Bogden Nedelcu rolled 8-2 at No. 3 to give Hartford the lead
heading into singles action. That’s when the Terriers took over. All four
Terrier wins came in straight sets beginning with Alex Green and Alex
Hallenbeck at bottom of the lineup to push Boston U. ahead. Regis Chang picked
up a big win at No. 4, 6-2, 6-4, to make it 3-1 before Hartford clawed back to
within one thanks to Aneil Bhalla’s 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 2. Boston U. clinched
the match just moments later, though, as Jesse Frieder topped Hartford’s Marco
Neves, 6-3, 6-2 for the win.
Tomorrow’s
action features the top four seeds for the men and women. On the women’s side, Stony
Brook will take on top seed Boston U. while Binghamton squares off with No. 2
UMBC. For the men, Boston U. earned a shot at No. 1 Binghamton to complement a
2-3 matchup between Stony Brook and UMBC.
April
27
Women's First Round
No. 3 Binghamton 4, No. 6 Hartford 0
No. 4 Stony Brook 4, No. 5 Albany 1
Men's First Round
No. 4 Boston U 4, No. 5 Hartford 2
April 28
Women's Consolation
Albany vs. Hartford, 11:30 a.m.
Women's Semifinals
No. 1 Boston U. vs. Stony Brook, 10 a.m.
No. 2 UMBC vs. Binghamton, 10 a.m.
Men's Semifinals
No. 1 Binghamton vs. Boston U., 2 p.m.
No. 2 Stony Brook vs. No. 3 UMBC 2 p.m.
April 29
Women's Final
W. Match 4 Winner vs. W. Match 5 Winner, 11 a.m.
Men's Final
M. Match 2 Winner vs. M. Match 3 Winner, 11 a.m.