ONEONTA, N.Y. -- The SUNY Oneonta men's tennis team fell in a pair of matches against Farmingdale and Ithaca, Sunday and Monday afternoon. The Red Dragons came up short in their home opener against the Rams, 6-3, then were defeated on the road against the Bombers, 8-1. Freshman
Brayden Stuart (Albertson, N.Y./Herricks HS / New Hyde Park) and junior
Noah Khair (New Delhi, INDIA/National Institute of Open Schooling) both won two of their matches as Oneonta moved to 7-7 on the season, Farmingdale improved to 8-0 overall, and Ithaca to 6-8.
Oneonta 3, Farmingdale 6
Farmingdale secured both the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles courts, 8-2. Stuart and freshman
Chris Chippari (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C Ketcham) paired up on the No. 2 doubles court and won in the match, 8-4, against Alan Sabovic and Matthew Waterhouse.
Stuart continued his dominant play into the singles matches and defeated Ty Williams on the No. 4 court in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. Stuart is now 6-3 this season on the No. 4 court. Khair recorded the final match point for Oneonta in a three-set thriller against Matthew Olkhovetsky on the No. 5 court. He won the first set, 6-4, before Olkhovetsky battled for a 7-5 second set. In the third set, Khair defeated Olkhovetsky for the 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 win.
Senior
August LePique (New York, NY/Columbia) faced Sabovic in a close match on the No. 1 court. LePique secured the first set, 6-4, then went into a tiebreak in the second set where Sabovic took it, 10-6, forcing a third set tiebreaker. The tiebreaker went back and forth, and it was Sabovic that walked away with the match, 4-6, 7-6 (10-6), 10-7. Sophomore
William Schmid (Yonkers/Salesian HS) battled on the No. 2 court against Ryan Hendel, but came up short in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5.
Oneonta 1, Ithaca 8
Ithaca captured all three doubles matches. LePique and Schmid had the closest contest on the No. 1 court, but dropped to Gijs Fidler and Emiliano Pedrero, 8-5.
Khair won the only point for Oneonta on the No. 5 singles court in straight 6-4 sets against Max Sobel to improve to 2-1 this season on the No. 5 court. LePique had another tough match on the No. 1 court versus Nicolas Luis. After he dropped the first set, 6-2, LePique won the second set in a tiebreak, 7-6 (7-5), but fell in the super tiebreaker to Sobel, 10-4.
The Red Dragons are back in action tomorrow, April 10, against SUNY Delhi in Morgan's Message Game at 4 pm on Dr. Heissan's '63 Tennis Courts.
