While the weather may be cold in Ithaca, the men’s tennis team was on fire early against St. John Fisher College, dispatching the Cardinals 7–2 in its first Empire 8 match of the season April 3.

The Bombers, now 4–3 on the season, went up to Rochester, New York, and were steady early, eventually overpowering their opponent.

On the singles court, the South Hill squad won five out of six matches, with wins coming from sophomore Lorenzo Viguie-Ramos, juniors Wes Davis, Nate Wolf and Brandon Buksbaum and senior Chris Hayes. Hayes has not lost a match in singles play in dual matches this season.

After his 6–0, 6–1 victory over St. John Fisher’s freshman Jarrett Pelton, Buksbaum teamed up with Wolf in third doubles to handle Cardinals freshman John Miller and sophomore Jon Harper 8–2.

The tightest match of the day was in second doubles. Hayes, after defeating freshman Cardinal Quinn Magiera 6–4, 6–0, joined forces with freshman Michael Gardiner to grind out an 8–5 victory over juniors Jacob Zarzycki and Adam Moran.

The Bombers will look to keep momentum when they play last year’s Empire 8 Champion, Stevens Institute of Technology, at noon April 9 on the Wheeler Tennis Courts.