The Berkeley College men's tennis team captured its first victory of the 2016 campaign last night, defeating the Warriors of Vaughn College by a score of 5-4 in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match played at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. With the victory, the Knights are now 1-3 on the year (1-1 HVIAC), while the Warriors slipped to 1-2 (1-2 HVIAC).
In what was a very competitive match all evening long, the Knights recorded victories in two out of the three doubles flights to grab an early 2-1 lead. At No. 1 doubles, Berkeley's Victor Marotta and Sebastian Rousseau out-worked Vaughn College's Tobi Oladeji and Thioune, 8-4. The Knights also solidified a grueling win at No. 3 singles, as Prince Ngakala and Alexander Maurmann got past the Warriors' Joel Haynes and Josh Diaz, 8-7 (10-7). Vaughn's doubles win came at the No. 2 flight, with Ahmed Aly and Elias Dimitropoulos beating Berkeley's Andrea Massignani and Rajah Ulrich Mopoundza, 8-3.
When play switched over to singles, the teams split the six flights, giving Berkeley the one-point victory. The Knights' singles wins came at No's 1, 2, and 5. At No. 1 singles, Marotta continued his dominance this season, as he turned back Oladeji, 8-0 (retired, injury). Rousseau silenced Thioune, 10-5 at No. 2 singles, and at the No. 5 flight, it was Ngakala putting away Haynes, 10-5. The Warriors' singles triumphs came at No's 3 (Aly over Massignani 10-3), No. 4 (Dimitropoulos over Mopoundza, 10-6), and No. 6 (Diaz over Maurmann, 10-5). Following the victory, Berkeley College Head Coach David Eddy gave his thoughts.
"There were some special efforts this evening by these student-athletes, and it was tremendous to see them work so diligently to record this victory," Eddy said. "Victor has done a fabulous job for us at No. 1 singles, and that continued last night with another strong showing. Prince saw his tireless efforts at practice pay off, as he put forth a very encouraging performance and has gradually improved since the beginning of the season. Alex was very aggressive in his approach and I was very gratified to see that. All-in-all, it was a complete team effort by these guys tonight, and perhaps it was a big step forward for us. We'll look to keep this momentum going when we face another conference opponent in Pratt tomorrow."
The Knights will return to the courts tomorrow, as Berkeley will host Pratt Institute in another Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest. The match will be played at York College in Queens, NY. Start-time is scheduled for 4:00pm.
