Pine Valley, NY -- The Elmira College men's tennis team kept their spring season rolling along as they moved to 2-0 in Empire 8 Conference play, and 5-2 overall, by defeating Alfred University, 7-2. The win over the Saxons is Elmira's fifth in a row overall, extending the longest win streak an EC team has produced in over 14 years.
 
EC got off to a fantastic start as they sweept doubles for the second straight match. Elmira's first doubles team of Keith Bujak '15 and Satchal Waters '16 continued their dominant 2014-15 campaign as they coasted to an 8-2 win. The other two doubles matches, however, were much closer as both Austin Mansell '16 and Chris Konow '18 at second doubles and Yaniv Kogan '18 and Scott Ferron '16 at third doubles were in tight battles with their opponents.
 
Mansell and Konow held a 6-5 lead late in their match, but Alfred won consecutive games to take a 7-6 advantage. EC's second doubles team fought to force a tiebreaker at 8-8 and never let the Saxons get anything going in the tiebreaker, winning the match 9-8. Elmira was in even more of a dire situation at third doubles as Kogan and Ferron found themselves trailing 7-5 before starting their closing run. The duo came together and rallied, winning the next four games for the 9-7 victory.
 
Fresh off their sweep of doubles, EC looked to carry that momentum into singles play. Waters, at second singles, and Mansell, at third singles, each jumped out to sizable leads in their respective first sets, eventually taking them 6-2 and 6-1, respectively. Each player saw a bit more fight from their opponents in the second set, but it did not matter as they both wrapped-up their victories almost simultaneously. Waters won the second set 6-3 and Mansell took his second set 6-1 to give Elmira their fourth and fifth points of the match, clinching the victory.
 
Konow was having a bit more difficulty with his opponent as he was down by a break for most of the first set. Trailing 6-5, he came up with a crucial break of serve to force a tiebreak and then won the tiebreaker 7-5 to take the opening set. Konow dropped the second set, 6-3, and with the match already decided, a 10-point tiebreaker was used to determine the winner. Konow jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the tiebreaker and then held off his opponent's charge at the end, closing out the three-set victory with a 10-7 win in the breaker.
 
EC's final point of the afternoon came at fifth singles where Kogan was playing an abbreviated eight-game pro-set for his match. Kogan trailed 4-3 midway through his match, but the Israel native, similar to his doubles match, would rattle off five straight games to secure the victory.
 
The Purple and Gold will put their five-match win streak, and perfect conference record, on the line on Tuesday, March 31st when they travel to take on Hartwick College. The match is set to start at 4:00 p.m.

Singles Competition
1. Connor Doud (ALFRED) def. Keith Bujak (ELMIRA) 6-1, 6-1
2. Satchal Waters (ELMIRA) def. Evan Haskins (ALFRED) 6-2, 6-3
3. Austin Mansell (ELMIRA) def. Mike Graham (ALFRED) 6-1, 6-1
4. Chris Konow (ELMIRA) def. Kevin Volz (ALFRED) 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 1-0 (10-7)
5. Yaniv Kogan (ELMIRA) def. Matt Baloga (ALFRED) 8-4
6. Pat Brown (ALFRED) def. Scott Ferron (ELMIRA), by walkover

Doubles Competition
1. Bujak/Waters (ELMIRA) def. Doud/Haskins (ALFRED) 8-2
2. Mansell/Konow (ELMIRA) def. Graham/Volz (ALFRED) 9-8 (7-3)
3. Ferron/Kogan (ELMIRA) def. Baloga/Brown (ALFRED) 9-7