By Cooper Mead
Writer

The men’s tennis team took one of three contests against Patriot League rivals in a stint of away matches this week. The Bison then returned home to claim a 4-3 victory against Robert Morris.

Facing Army (13-9, 4-0 in the Patriot League) on April 12, the Bison fought a tough match but fell 5-2 to the Black Knights. Josh Katten ’13 and Evan Zimmer ’13 defeated Alex Van Velzer and Peter Sienko 9-7 playing at the No. 2 spot, improving the duo’s winning streak to six. Aidan Lynch ’14 and Gregg Cohenca ’12 also contributed to the solid doubles play at the No. 1 spot as they defeated Asika Isoh and Henry Jang-Milsten in a hard-fought match that culminated in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (7-5). The win brought the duo their third straight victory.

Despite the team’s doubles prowess, the Bison struggled in the singles arena and dropped all but one of the six possible points. Katten gave the Bison their only win, beating Alex Holland in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2.

The Bison rebounded from their tough loss to Army with a convincing 6-1 victory at Lafayette on Sunday.

The team began the match by winning all three of the doubles matchups. Scott Bernstein ’14 and Kelly Morque ’13 at the No. 3 spot won by a score of 8-4, while Katten and Zimmer also  emerged victorious at the No. 2 spot by a score of 8-2. The match marked the first time since their match against Hofstra on Feb. 18 that the Bison have swept the doubles matches. Cohenca’s victory brought his record to 68-46 in his doubles career for the Bison and brought him to third all-time. Only Ryan Sandburg ’09 (87-50) and Ira Reibeisen ’08 (69-60) hold better records.

The Bison’s singles play was also spectacular against the Leopards, taking five of six matches and four in straight sets. Cohenca won his second match of the day at the No. 1 spot against Doug Gallagher (6-3, 6-3) which marked his first singles win in eight matches. Zimmer, Katten, Morque and Gregory Maxson ’12 also won their singles matches.

“Lafayette was a great win for us,” Lynch said. “Everyone stepped up and took care of business. I was really proud of our team.”

The team finished its away stint and its final Patriot League game of the regular season on Tuesday with a tough 5-2 loss to Lehigh. The Hawks brought their record to 7-13 and 2-3 in the Patriot League.

The Bison doubles pairs remained strong as Zimmer and Katten defeated Mark Goldberg and Mitchell Petersen 8-1 at the No. 2 spot. The win gave the partners an undefeated doubles season. Morque and Bernstein also came away with a doubles win against Timur Chernykh and Andrew Krentz at the No. 3 spot by the score of 8-5 and secured the doubles team point.

The team continued to struggle with singles play. At the No. 6 spot, Maxson was the only Bison able to win his match, winning in three sets. Cohenca lost at the No. 1 spot to Goldberg by a score of 6-1, 3-6, 7-6. Zimmer also fought a tough match at the No. 2 position against Ben Gilman but lost 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.

“It was tough to lose to Lehigh. We will go into the tournament as a four seed like last year, but I think we still have a great opportunity to make a run,” Katten said. “The conference is really strong this year and while we may have lost those matches, these teams are well aware of our ability.”

Coming off of their two-win week, the Bison will play at Bloomsburg on Wednesday before traveling to Annapolis, Md. for the Patriot League tournament next weekend.