The College of Staten Island men’s tennis squad took their first step towards a CUNYAC championship run, defeating No. 5 City College of New York by a 5-1 count at the CSI Tennis Center in Staten Island, NY, as part of quarterfinal play. The Dolphins won for the third-straight time, improving to 5-8 overall, while the Beavers’ season finalized at 5-9. The Dolphins will move on to the CUNYAC Semifinals, where they will face top-seeded Baruch College on Sunday.
Play began with Doubles and the Dolphins wasted no time imposing their will and springing out to a 3-0 lead. The No. 1 team of Timur Shamuradov and Daniel Ursomanno powered to an 8-3 winner over Pavel Shapturenka and Michael Arias. CSI’s other two doubles units, Austin Kapetanakis and Chris Pinto at No. 2 and James Chuenpratum and Ed Ruffe at No. 3 were dominant, with both duos scoring 8-0 wins to give CSI the commanding edge.
CSI needed just two more points to clinch victory and suspend play and they got it quickly. At the top spot, Shamuradov won his first set over Shapturenka, 6-2, but a nagging injury forced Shamuradov into retirement and CSI conceded the flight. A few minutes later, however, CSI got the point back with Pinto’s win at No. 3, 6-0, 6-0, over Rezwan Islam. Just a few beats later, Ursomanno scored the same win against Arias at No. 2, winning the game for CSI, 5-1. The Dolphins were up after first sets in each of the three other flights when play was suspended.
The win now pits CSI with the top-seeded Bearcats in the semifinals on Sunday. Match time is scheduled for 1pm at Queens College in Queens, NY. The semifinal winners will meet on Thursday, May 1, for the CUNYAC Championship at 5pm at the National Tennis Center in Flushing, NY.
