The Ithaca College men’s tennis team dominated and defeated the Oneonta College Red Dragons on April 8 at the Wheeler Tennis Courts.

The South Hill squad began its day in three doubles matches, where the Bombers would sweep the Red Dragons in every competition. The No. 1 spot consisted of a match between Bombers’ first-year student duo of Gijs Fidler and Emiliano Pedrero against the Red Dragons’ sophomore William Schmid and senior August LePique. Pedrero and Fidler went back and forth with the Red Dragons duo, but Fidler powered a shot past the Red Dragons to end the match in the Bombers’ favor 8–5.

The No. 2 and No. 3 spot was even more dominant for the Bombers. The No. 2 spot saw a resurgence of a duo that has not been seen since Feb. 24. Seniors Nicolas Luis and Jacob Wachs reunited, and it proved fruitful against first-year students Chris Chippari and Brayden Stuart. The seniority showed and the Bombers took care of the Red Dragons 8–3. The No. 3 spot saw a finalization of the Red Dragons defeat in the category as graduate student Max Sobel and sophomore David Lubell defeated first-year student Zachary Blaakman and junior Noah Khair 8–1.

Head coach Tom Rishcoff said he was proud of the way Luis and Wachs played off each other after not being a pairing for around a month.

“Both seniors, both have a lot of experience on the court and I think they played off each other pretty well,” Rishcoff said. “They’ve had a little bit of experience playing together in the past, so I think they did well coming together and playing together today.”

Singles followed after the Bombers doubles dominance, and they did not take the foot off the pedal. The most intense match of the day was in the No. 1 spot as Luis took on LePique. Luis took the first set 6–2 but was soon matched as LePique took the second set 7–6. With his back against the wall, Luis made some terrific hits and outlasted LePique to win in three sets.

The No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 singles spots would all only take two sets to get wins for the Bombers. Fidler would make easy work of Schmid to take both sets 6–2 and 6–3 respectively. Sophomore Siddharth Vaada got his first action of the day against Chippari and made his mark in the competition. Vaada cruised through the first set 6–1 but Chippari made Vaada work for the second. Despite Chippari’s best effort, Vaada still downed him 6–4 and took the match. Sophomore Carlos Hernandez matched Vaada with a 6–1 victory in his first set against Stuart but improved on Vaada, winning his second and final set 6–2.

The No. 5 and No. 6 matchups would be more difficult for the Bombers despite the win already being secured for the team. In the No. 5 matchup Sobel faced off with Khair and it would not end well for the Bombers. After a tight race in both sets, Khair came out on top winning both sets 6–4. Junior Daniel Borenius finished off the day for the Bombers, beating Blaakman 8–4 in one set.

Rishcoff said he was satisfied with the team’s performance and is focusing on taking it day by day.

“I was happy with the way we played,” Rishcoff said. “I think we went out there, we took care of business. I thought we were focused on each court and the guys were able to get it done.”

The Bombers will ride a three game winning streak into a matchup against Vassar College at 10 a.m. April 13 in Ithaca, New York.