The Bison men’s tennis team started their spring season this weekend, hosting Fordham and Delaware at the Central PA Tennis Center in Williamsport, Pa. Head coach Bruce Myers sent out a very young team consisting of four freshmen, three sophomores, and only one upperclassman.

“As we all went home during the break, we mainly focused on staying in shape and keeping up our fitness level. The team came back before school started, however, to get ready for the season,” Per Astrom ’23 said.

On Sunday, the Orange and Blue kicked-off the competition with a 6-1 loss against the Rams. Marwan Abaza ’21 won his contest 6-4, 7-5 and moved to 1-0 in the spring season. Michael Owen ’23, Guillermo Torres ’23, and Ryan Jurist ’22 all battled hard but fell in three sets. The Bison fared better in doubles as Chunyu Chen ’23 and Abaza won by a score of 6-4.

“We are a very young team — no seniors and one junior, and we have five student-athletes who have never played a collegiate match.  We are hoping to gain valuable experience in our matches through spring break in order to best prepare us for Conference play which begins in late March.  We were in both of our first matches just lacked the experience to win the big points or figure out ways to win third sets. This will come with time and match play,” Myers said.

Before this past competition, the Delaware Blue Hens dropped their season opener against Richmond with a score of 4-3. Last time the Bison and Delaware faced each other, the Bison fell in a final decision of 4-3 to the Blue Hens.

Due to unfinished games on Monday afternoon, the final score finished 4-0 in favor of the Blue Hens, with the Bison falling to 0-2 for their first competition in the 2020 season. Despite the loss in the season opener, Cooper Bradshaw ’22 and Owen claimed a 6-3 doubles victory.

The Bison men’s tennis team will be heading to Newark, N.J. next weekend for their second competition of the spring season, the NJIT Spring Tournament.