By Thomas Walter

Contributing Writer

The men’s tennis team won 5-2 against Niagara and 6-1 against St. Bonaventure last weekend in Olean, N.Y.

“We face a lot of difficult hurdles: practice on a rubber surface, only two courts, limited time available on the courts, we aren’t able to always practice as a team because of class schedules,” Head Coach Rebecca Helt said. “The men have worked extraordinarily hard this spring on fighting through the training difficulties [and] bringing a much more focused and intense attitude to each and every practice, regardless of the limitations we face.”

After first losing the doubles session against Niagara in the first match of the weekend, the team came storming back to win the singles session. Led by Mark Malloy ’11, who became the ninth member in the history of the men’s tennis team to reach 100 career wins, and Gregg Cohenca ’12, the team took a 4-1 lead, clinching a win. Malloy defeated his opponent 6-4, 6-0, while Cohenca won 6-3, 6-4.

The next match saw the Bison against a tough opponent in St. Bonaventure. The victory was only the Bison’s fourth in 12 meetings between the two schools.

According to Kyle Rosen ’14, the performance against Niagara propelled the men’s team to victory against the Bonnies.

“We took that momentum right into the St. Bonaventure match, which [was against] a very good team,” he said.

The Bison won both the doubles and singles sessions of the match, only losing one match in each session. Malloy again played well and clinched the match at number five singles. Malloy improved his overall record as a Bison to 102-52 while shutting out his opponent 6-0, 4-0 before his opponent retired.

This was the third straight victory for a Bison team that will next travel to Orlando, Fla. to face South Dakota State, Liberty, NJIT and Boston University.