By Cooper Mead
Contributing Writer
The men’s tennis team lost to both Niagara and St. Bonaventure 4-3 last weekend in Olean, N.Y.
Against Niagara, the Bison managed to split their singles matches but could not claim the doubles matches necessary to secure a victory. Gregg Cohenca ’12, Josh Katten ’13 and Gregory Maxson ’12 each came away with big victories in singles, but the Purple Eagles were able to match the Bison with three singles wins of their own.
Cohenca played an extremely close match against Joseph Zelic at the No. 1 spot, winning the first set 6-2 and claiming the third 6-3 after losing the second in a tiebreaker. With the victory, Cohenca increased his total singles wins to 45 for his career, moving him into a tie for 13th place in program history. In the No. 3 spot, Katten defeated Lorenz Schowjer with a 6-1, 6-4 sweep.
A Niagara sweep of all three doubles matches prevented the Bison from earning the victory.
Following the first loss, the Bison came out on Saturday to face St. Bonaventure, but fell in similar fashion.
Cohenca and Evan Zimmer ’13 won the No. 1 doubles match 8-6 against opponents Luis Guevara and Oscar Yanez.
Later, in singles, Cohenca fell in straight sets at the No. 1 spot and was followed by Katten and Zimmer shortly thereafter. For the bottom three players, the story was quite the opposite. Kelly Morque ’13, Kyle Rosen ’14 and Maxson each defeated their opponents and brought the Bison to within one of their opponent. Morque’s match against St. Bonaventure first-year Miguel Suarez was especially close, but the junior was able to come away with the three-set victory, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2.
In the end, the Bison rally proved too little, too late with the Bonnies having already secured the victory before the conclusion of these matches.
“It’s good we won a bunch of matches, but if we don’t get the team win, it’s disappointing,” Morque said. “We competed very well but obviously there are some things we still need to work on. These tough matches will only motivate us to work harder in practice.”
The Bison hope to rebound from these two losses when they travel to Orlando, Fla. for six important matches over spring break.