Box Score

Pine Valley, NY -- The Elmira College men's tennis team looked to make it two in a row over rival St. John Fisher College, but the Soaring Eagles were bested by the Cardinals, 7-2. EC is now 2-3 in the Empire 8 with two conference matches remaining.
 
The Purple and Gold got off to a slow start as St. John Fisher swept the doubles portion of the match. The Cardinals took first doubles and third doubles by scores of 8-4 and 8-3 respectively, but EC's best opportunity for a victory in doubles came at the second position where Satchal Waters'16 and Austin Mansell'16 were in a tight match. The duo held a 5-2 lead over St. John Fisher, but the Cardinals would get back into the match on a break of serve and then go on to win by an 8-6 score.
 
Despite trailing 3-0, EC still had a shot to pull out the win but they would need to win five of the six singles matches on the court. Unfortunately for Elmira, St. John Fisher would secure wins in two of the first four matches on the court, third and fourth singles, to clinch the victory. Pavle Vashakidze '16 and Neal Statts '17 would each play into third set at first and sixth singles, respectively, but both would fall in third set tiebreakers to their opponents.
 
EC would get wins in singles from their number two player, Keith Bujak '15, and their number five player, Waters. Bujak avenged an earlier loss to Fisher's Sheldon Mitchell, defeating Mitchell 6-3, 6-4. Waters fell behind 3-0 in the first set of his match with Adam Moran, but rattled off six straight games to win the first set 6-3. He won the second set by the identical score to pull out the straight set victory.
 
The Soaring Eagles will be back in action on Wednesday, April 16th when EC travels to Ithaca College for another Empire 8 matchup. The match is scheduled to start at 4:00 p.m.