The College of Staten Island men’s tennis squad extended their season-long winning streak to four games, taking a 5-4 decision over visiting Purchase State in a match played Monday afternoon at the CSI Tennis Center. CSI ran their overall record up to 9-4 with the victory, while the Panthers fell to 5-6.
CSI did the host of its damage in doubles play, where the Dolphins ripped off all three flights to take a commanding 3-0 lead going into singles.
Nicholas Zikos and Patrick Thomas ran their team doubles record to 4-2, taking an 8-5 decision over PSC’s Brenden Keeling and Roger King. The No. 2 doubles team of Joe Taranto and Masaru Takaki were quicker in their win, scoring an 8-0 shutout to give CSI control, and a short time later, the duo of Riad Hamai and Giorgio Dano at No. 3 took an 8-3 winner over Chris Matchneer and Carl Ackley.
CSI needed only two winning flights in singles to secure the match outright and that’s exactly how it unfolded as CSI coasted at the No. 2 and 6 flights, respectively. Thomas did the honors in the second spot, scoring a 6-2, 6-1, win over King, while freshman Daniel Ursomanno upped his singles record to 8-1 overall with a 6-1, 6-2, win over Matchneer. Purchase took the other four flights, including a default win in the third spot, when Hamai was late returning to the court after suffering an injury during doubles.
The Dolphins will now get some well-deserved days off before resuming play with a very busy upcoming weekend. CSI will travel to non-conference Ramapo College on Friday at 3:30pm, and then will play at Rutgers-Newark on Saturday (12 Noon) and will host New York City College of Technology on Sunday (12 Noon)
