Box Score Sept. 17, 2014
The Hamilton Continentals rode into Oneonta from The NESCAC Conference one of the toughest Men's Conferences in the country to take on their Upstate New York rivals in the home opener and first dual match of the year for the SUNY Oneonta Red Dragon's Men's Tennis Team. The Continentals also were competing in their first dual match of the season.
The new look Red Dragons placed two freshmen in their starting lineups as they fielded their roster for the first time in the 2014/15 season. Although losing 0-9 to a very strong Hamilton Squad, Coach Mitchel said "that his recruits performed admirably in their first competition and we have a solid future ahead".
The highlight of the day was at first doubles where Mackenzie Park and Benjamin Leighton went down early in the match 1-6 but did not give up and fought hard but had to accept defeat 3-8. Matt Bahar and Damien Prohaska in third doubles competition had break points with opportunities to secure a significant lead in their match but squandered the opportunity and had to shoulder the 4-8 setback.
In singles at number one Leighton pushed his opponent but had to take his first defeat of the young season losing 3-6, 2-6. Matthew Richards at number 5 singles lost the first set but came back to win the second set only to bow out in the super tiebreaker 3-10. Matthew Bahar one of the top recruited freshman for the year fought valiantly also winning the second set but finally dropping the match in the third set 4-6.
Cole Laffitte (East Setauket/Ward Melville) the highest recruit in the lineup had an impressive freshman debut and hung around until finally yielding 4-6 in the second set.
Despite the score to a very strong Hamilton Squad, Coach Mitchel was pleased with the effort and the talent on the squad but obviously we also need to improve on footwork and first serve percentages.
The Red Dragons have a break until their next Fall Dual match in October v Wilkes University on October 9
th. The Red Dragons will play a split squad tournament this upcoming weekend at Connecticut College.
1. Matt BILLET (HAM) def. Benjamin Leighton (ONEMT) 6-3, 6-2
2. James OLIVER (HAM) def. Mackenzie Park (ONEMT) 6-1, 6-1
3. Jonathan COHEN (HAM) def. Ryohei Nakamura (ONEMT) 6-2, 6-3
4. Eyad NAGORI (HAM) def.
Cole Laffitte (East Setauket/Ward Melville) (ONEMT) 6-2, 6-4
5. Max McKEE-PROCTOR (HAM) def. Matthew Richards (ONEMT) 6-4, 4-6, 10-3
6. Alex STREICH (HAM) def. Matthew Bahar (ONEMT) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. Austin LOKRE/Max McKEE-PROCTOR (HAM) def. Benjamin Leighton/Mackenzie Park (ONEMT) 8-3
2. James OLIVER/Eyad NAGORI (HAM) def.
Cole Laffitte (East Setauket/Ward Melville)/Matthew Richards (ONEMT) 8-1
3. Jonathan COHEN/Alex STREICH (HAM) def. Matthew Bahar/Damien Prohaska (ONEMT) 8-4
