Box Score Towson, MD.  – A warm 75 degree day in Maryland on the campus of Goucher College was the sight of the first outdoor match of the spring season for the SUNY Oneonta men's tennis team.  Playing last year's Landmark Conference Champs and a team that went to the NCAA round of 32 in 2016, the Red Dragons played yet another dramatic tennis match, but this time came out on top 5-4 in a five-hour affair that had just about as much theatre a tennis match can have.

Doubles play saw the No. 1 duo of senior Michael Nelson (Manhasset/Manhasset) and sophomore Joseph D'Orazio (Smithtown/Smithtown) double up their opponents by getting the early break of serve to pick up an 8-4 triumph.

The No. 3 tandem of junior Zach Lasky (Latham/Colonie) and freshman Marco Ammirati (Huntington/Huntington) played the most exciting doubles match of the afternoon.  Lasky and Ammirati went up a break early in the set only to see them get broken twice in a row.  With the Goucher opponents serving for the match at 6-7 the Red Dragon pair saved match points and broke back.  They won the next two games to win 9-7 to secure a 2-1 lead for the Red Dragons going into singles play. 

The fireworks were yet to come as the singles portion of the match lasted 3 ½ hours.  The incredible highlights for the Red Dragons featured junior Cole Laffitte (East Setauket/Ward Melville) getting a lopsided win at the fourth flight earning a 6-2, 6-0 win as he dictated tempo and never was threatened throughout the contest.

However, after the Red Dragons went up 3-1, Goucher came roaring back and won at No. 2, 3 and 5^th singles.  What looked like an inevitable disappointing 3-6 loss for the Red Dragons turned out to be one of the great comebacks in the recent history of Oneonta men's tennis.

At sixth singles, sophomore Nicholas Fox (Commack/Commack) dropped the first set and was in jeopardy of losing the second set having gone down a break.  This was an opportunity for Fox with his teammates rooting for him to dig deeper into his arsenal of solid net play.  Fox got his opponent into the second set tiebreaker which he won 7-4 setting up a third set finale to determine the outcome at the sixth flight and the chance to deadlock the dual match at 4-4.  Fox did not disappoint as he got the break he needed in the third set and held serve the rest of the way and won the third set 6-3. 

The dual match was now tied at 4-4, which left things up to senior Michael Nelson (Manhasset/Manhasset), who throughout the week prior to the match was challenged by head coach Lonnie Mitchel to find that extra gear.  Nelson did not disappoint and perhaps played the best match of his Red Dragon career.  Nelson lost the first set in a tiebreaker 4-7 as his opponent's serve proved too much.

The second set was more of the same back-and-forth battle with Nelson saving two match points before winning the second set 7-6 (9-7) to even the match at one set apiece.

Nelson and his Goucher opponent traded blows throughout the third set with each player running on fumes with no service breaks to be had.  As was the case with the previous two sets, the third set headed to a tiebreaker.  Nelson went ahead in the tie-break 5-2, but his opponent ran off four straight points, which put Nelson down a match point. Nelson won the next two points with a mini break with the final point coming at the net.

The Red Dragon men mobbed Nelson at the end in celebratory style.  The five hour ride back from Maryland was very joyous as the Red Dragons celebrated one of the bigger wins in recent history for the men's tennis program. 

This victory gets the Red Dragons set up for one of the most formidable opponents the Red Dragons have faced in many years as the take on the 10^th ranked team in Division III Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio on Saturday April 1^st.  They will then play Midwest regionally ranked John Carroll University on Sunday, April 2^nd.