The Berkeley College New York men's tennis team dropped a hard-fought Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match on Sunday afternoon, falling to the Bears of St. Joseph's College of Brooklyn by a score of 5-4 in a contest that took place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, NY. With the loss, the Knights dropped to 2-3 on the 2015 season (2-2 HVIAC), while the Bears upped their mark to 2-6 on the year (2-1 in conference play).
Berkeley College defaulted the No. 3 doubles match to St. Joseph's College, but the Knights were able to solidify a victory at No. 2, as Omar Durrani and Alex Maurmom combined to defeat the Bears' Matt Smith and James Hanophy by a score of 8-4. The Bears grabbed the lead again after doubles play as Kevin Caicedo and Nolan Parr teamed up at the top doubles spot to edge Berkeley's Thinh Nguyen and Herder Pisco in a tiebreak, 9-8 (7-3).
The Knights defaulted the No. 6 singles match, as the Bears pushed ahead in the match by a score of 3-1. Berkeley would then win three consecutive singles flights to grab a 4-3 advantage. Herder Pisco downed Smith 10-7 at No. 3 singles and Chubak Ulan defeated Carlos Mayorga 10-8 at No. 5 singles to level the match. Newcomer Alex Maurmom outlasted Hanophy at 7-4 in their tiebreaker at No. 4 singles to pull the Knights within one point of the match, but Caicedo kept the Bears alive by picking up a 7-3 win over Nguyen in their tiebreaker at the top singles position, as the match was tied at four apiece.
In a flight that would decide the match, Parr would turn back Durrani 10-5 to clinch the victory for St. Joseph's College of Brooklyn. Following the match, Berkeley College Head Coach David Eddy gave his thoughts.
"It was a difficult match for us to lose, but the student-athletes showed great determination today, and I was very proud of their grit," Eddy said. "This is a motivated group, and I believe they will continue to get better and improve themselves. We'll look to get back on track on Saturday."
The Knights will now have five days off before returning to the court on Saturday, April 25 to take on Pratt Institute in another Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest. Start-time for that match is scheduled for 2:00pm.