The College of Staten Island men’s tennis team saw their season come to a close on this chilly afternoon. The #4 seeded Dolphins took on #5 Lehman College at the CSI Tennis Center for the CUNYAC Quarterfinal match at 4:00 pm. The Dolphins would lose 5-2 and finish the season 6-9 overall.
The quarterfinal match would start off with doubles, pitting the team of Chris Pinto and Mitchel Voloshin together on court one while Matthew Vesci and Adia swung away on court two. After keeping in close early on the team of Pinto and Voloshin started to lose the match as their opponents Jason Strudwick and Carlo Francisco started to gain momentum and pull away and eventually finish second behind court two with a 8-3 victory.
The duo of Adia and Vesci were able to quickly dispose of their opponents on court two and were able to give the Dolphins a 1-0 lead after their 8-2 victory. Staten Island would fall behind 2-1 however after Mohammed El Sayed and Tony Francis failed to pick up a win in third doubles.
The Dolphins went into singles down 2-1 and it was Tony Francis who took care of his business down on court six. Francis came into today’s match on a three match win streak, longest for the Dolphins, and finished the season trending upward with a 6-2, 6-1 win to tie the match up 2-2. Unfortunately for the Dolphins the Lightning were winning a majority of the other courts.
Lehman would take a 3-2 lead when Al Joseph Dubouzet took down Voloshin on court four to give the Lightning a 3-2 lead that they would never look back from. Brandon Nickel was the next Dolphin to fall to extend the Lightning lead to 4-2. Adia was locked in a close battle on court two while Vesci had control of his match in the third spot.
Pinto found himself behind early and was unable to muster a comeback to keep his Dolphins alive as he would fall on court one 6-3, 6-1.
CSI’s season now ends at 6-9. After they defeated Lehman 6-3 in the regular season the Lightning were able to get revenge and knock the Dolphins out of the CUNYAC Postseason Tournament.
