Emily Evancho
Contributing Writer
The men’s tennis team returned to its winning ways last weekend, defeating Niagara and St. Bonaventure 5-2 in two road matches. Kyle Rosen ’14 secured the team’s victories for both matches, bringing the Bison’s record for the season to 3-2.
Against Niagara, the Orange and Blue struggled in doubles matches, only securing an 8-4 win from the team of Octavio Canibe ’15 and Aidan Lynch ’14. For the singles matches, Nick Bybel ’16 succeeded with a dual victory and Kelly Morque ’13 and Josh Katten ’13 both split their opening sets, but were still successful with twin 6-1 final sets. Rosen’s 6-0, 6-4 win in his singles match brought the overall score to a 4-3 victory over Niagara.
“I am happy that we were able to pull out a tough victory,” Rosen said. “A close win like this always gives us confidence moving forward.”
The Bison wasted no time against St. Bonaventure, sweeping away doubles points early in the match. The team of Morque and Evan Zimmer ’13 took control with an 8-6 victory, and Canibe and Lynch cleaned up the doubles matches with an 8-3 win. In singles play, both Bybel and Zimmer finished their matches with two wins each. Rosen won two tough sets, each bringing 7-5 wins, to settle the score at 5-2 over St. Bonaventure.
“I was very impressed with everyone’s ability to stay positive during tough moments,” Zimmer said. “We lost to both Niagara and St. Bonaventure last year, so it felt great to pull both out this year. I hope we can bring the same intensity and focus for this weekend’s matches against Hofstra and Princeton.”
The Bison will return to the court when they challenge Hofstra and Princeton on the road this weekend.