Ewing Township, NJ – The SUNY Oneonta men's tennis team today flirted with upsetting 16th regionally ranked The College of NJ (TCNJ) today in what was a very competitive and entertaining matchup. 

At the number one doubles spot junior Nicholas Fox (Commack/Commack) and sophomore Marco Ammirati (Huntington/Huntington) opened up their match with a break of serve but gave the break right back and gave up two other breaks of their own eventually succumbing to their TCNJ number one counterparts 8-3.   A similar fate happened on the second doubles court as the number two tandem of senior Zach Lasky (Colonie/Colonie) and senior Tim Distler broke serve twice but eventually gave them back and was also broken twice and therefore also had to settle for an 8-4 defeat.  However, doubles for the number three team of freshman Riley Smith (Westhampton Beach/Westhampton Beach) and senior Cole Laffitte (East Setauket/Ward Melville) got the early break and it held up and scored an impressive upset win 8-5 and kept the dual match close for the Red Dragons.

With just a 2-1 deficit the Red Dragon men were looking to surprise the TCNJ squad but the opponents from New Jersey were a little better today and showed why they are a top ranked team.  The highlight of singles play took place in the fifth position as Distler with lots of support from his family played brilliant tennis and scored an outstanding upset playing incredibly steady.  Distler dropped the first set 6-4 and then got an early break in the second set and he held on for a 6-3 second set equalizer that forced a ten point super- tiebreaker to decide the fifth position outcome.  It was Distler's day and he was never threatened in the breaker winning 10-3 in a very memorable match for the senior.

The men's tennis team get right back to competition and host SUNY Oswego on Sunday, April 29^th beginning at 10 AM at the Heissan Tennis Courts on the campus of SUNY Oneonta.  In the case of inclement weather the match will be played at the Oneonta Tennis Center.