Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 Cleveland, Ohio – The SUNY Oneonta Men's Tennis ventured to Ohio for a weekend of great tennis that was held on the campus of the Division 1 Cleveland State University's tennis complex.  Unfortunately for the Red Dragons the men were defeated against some top level competition.  The Red Dragon men played admirably and at a very high level but could not match the talent of their competition.

First match held on Saturday, April 1^st was against the nationally ranked # 12 Case Western Spartans.  The Red Dragons faced off against a split squad from the Spartans in a doubleheader format.  The lone highlight on the day for The Red Dragons was senior Michael Nelson (Manhasset/Manhasset) getting an upset win at the number one position surprising the top player from Case and delivered a 6-4, 2-6 (10-6) win in what amounts to a second in a row impressive performance for the top Oneonta player.  Nelson was thrilled in having beaten one of the better D3 players in the country.   Earlier at the number one flight doubles position Nelson and his partner sophomore Joseph D'Orazio (Smithtown/Smithtown) were actually up a break of serve and lead 5-4 against one of the formidable doubles team in the country but once the Case pair broke back to even the score the Spartan duo took it up a notch and delivered the knockout punch showing why they are one of the best tennis teams in the country defeating the Red Dragon tandem 8-5.  On the day the Spartans in the night cap shutout the Red Dragons with again the best performance coming from Nelson who lost the match at first singles 6-3, 6-3 with only two service breaks against him.

On Sunday, The Red Dragons returned to the Cleveland State University tennis complex and this time had to face the number 20^th ranked team in the Midwest John Carroll University who just took down The University of Rochester the 18^th ranked team in the NE region earlier in the day.  The Red Dragons started off strong against JCU and were very impressive in jumping out to a 2-1 lead after the doubles stanza.  Sophomore Nicholas Fox (Commack/Commack) and junior Tim Distler at the number two position were victorious coming back to win after being down a break 4-5 and then ran off four straight games to surprise the John Carroll 8-5.  At the number three doubles position junior Zach Lasky (Latham/Colonie) and freshman Marco Ammirati (Huntington/Huntington) continue to impress as a team as they jumped out to a 6-1 lead and withstood a short lived comeback from JCU and held on to win 8-5.

With a 2-1 lead going into singles play the Red Dragons was looking to get another big program win against some top ranked teams.  However, it was not meant to be as John Carroll shutout Oneonta in singles play and won the dual match 7-2.  All of JCU wins in singles were in straight sets with D'Orazio, sophomore Michael DeNigris and Lasky all losing their sets by just one break.  Against a team of John Carroll's caliber taking care of serve is important as it would be against any opponent but with those service breaks against in several of the singles matches The Red Dragons could not recover and Oneonta suffering a disappointing loss.

The Red Dragons very challenging schedule brings on the next opponents the #18 regionally ranked University of Rochester to be played on Wednesday, April 5th in Rochester beginning at 4 PM and three days later the defending Commonwealth Conference Champs Nichols College on the 8^th of April on their campus beginning at 1 PM