The Ithaca College men’s tennis team faced Nazareth College on April 15, for an Empire 8 Conference matchup. The Bombers defeated the Golden Flyers and improve to 8–4 overall and 4–0 in conference play. Ithaca also celebrated senior day, recognizing Brandon Buksbaum, Wes Davis, Charlie Vaca and Nate Wolf.
The Blue and Gold started out strong in doubles play with three victories.
Freshman Minos Stavrakas and sophomore Michael Gardiner paired up at first flight doubles against Nazareth’s sophomore Lamar Hurt and freshman Dan Freilicher. Stavrakas and Gardiner defeated Hurt and Freilicher of the Golden Flyers, 8–4.
Not far behind was the Bombers’ second doubles flight tandem Davis and junior Lorenzo Viguie-Ramos who defeated freshman Jameson Keppeler and junior Louis Rogers of the Golden Flyers, 8–3. Third flight doubles pair Wolf and freshman Colten Lavery swept freshmen pair Jonathan Scudder and Evan Vogue, 8–0.
Singles play for the Bombers were just as successful as doubles play. All singles flights defeated Nazareth opponents in two sets. The closest match of the evening came from Davis.
Davis faced Hurt of the Golden Flyers who competed in a competitive first set, defeating Hurt, 7–6. The second set Davis came out with a strong 6–3 win not allowing Hurt to stay close.
“I was really trying to focus on getting the ball back in play and work the point,” Davis said of the first set.
Also for singles, second flight Gardiner and third flight Lavery bested their opponents Rogers and Freilicher 6–1, 6–0 respectively.
Another strong win for singles play came in the sixth flight where Buksbaum defeated freshman Andy Lee of the Golden Flyers in a pair of 6–0 sets.
The Bombers are undefeated in Empire 8 Conference play and feel strongly about the remainder of the season.
“I think this is the most confident season we’ve had,” Wolf said. “Last year we beat all the other teams except for Stevens [Institute of Technology]. In terms of all the other teams, we feel really confident and were just looking forward to next Saturday when we play Stevens.”
The Blue and Gold come off of back-to-back wins gearing up for another Empire 8 matchup against Hartwick College.
The Bombers will face the Hawks at 4 p.m. April 18 when they travel to Oneonta, New York.
