Pittsford, NY -- EC Men's Tennis lost a hard fought match today as they traveled to take on the Cardinals of St. John Fisher College in EC's first Empire 8 match of the year. Elmira entered the match winning their last contest against SUNY Oswego, 8-1 while Fisher was coming off a 7-2 loss to Stevens Tech.
The Soaring Eagles took two of three doubles matches, winning at the first and third positions. At first doubles Gabe Cortes '11 (Miami, FL -- Miami Country Day School) and Eric Klinedinst '12 (York, PA -- Northeastern) fought hard to claim an 8-4 win. The duo would claim a 4-3 lead before breaking and holding serve to go up 6-3. Both teams would hold bringing the match to 7-4. Elmira would then go on to break Fisher to take the match 8-4.
At third doubles Gorav Simlote '13 (Syracuse, NY -- Jamesville-Dewitt) and Sam Pine '14 (Elmira Heights, NY -- Thomas Edison) rallied for an 8-5 victory. The EC pair dug an early hole as they fell behind 5-2. Simlote and Pine would put things together as they ran off 6 straight games for the win.
Singles play got started off with the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth singles positions hitting the courts first. Fisher would claim points at the sixth and fourth spots as they took the matches in straight sets, giving Fisher a 3-2 match advantage.
Cortes would even things up as he would win at first singles 6-4, 6-1. He would struggle early in the first but would bounce back in a big way as he rolled in the second. Klinedinst would finish next at the two spot, winning 6-0, 6-1. His win put Elmira at one win away from a team match victory.
Fisher would take the match at third singles tying the match at four a piece. The match at fifth singles was the first singles match to go on and would be the one that would decide the outcome of the match. Steffan Waters '13 (Elmira, NY -- Elmira Free Academy) was Elmira's fifth singles player and would compete in a four-hour singles match.
Waters would drop the first set 6-2 but would force a third set as he rallied for a 6-3 second set win. In the third Waters would jump out to a 2-0 lead but Fisher's Dan Parshall '13 would run off 3 straight games. Both players would trade games as Parshall took a 6-5 lead, on his own serve. Waters would fight off two match points during the service game and would get the break to force a tie-breaker for the match.
In the breaker Waters would take a 3-1 lead before Parshall rallied for two straight. Waters would then get two points in a row to go up 5-3. Parshall would put it together as he would take the tie-breaker at 7-5, handing Elmira their first Empire 8 loss of the season.
With the loss Elmira drops to 2-2 on the season and 0-1 in the Empire 8 Conference. EC will look for their first E8 win as they host the Bombers of Ithaca College on Tuesday, April 5th at the Murray Athletics Center in Pine Valley, NY. Match-time is set for 4:00 p.m.
Elmira College 4 St. John Fisher College 5
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