Queens Village, NY | The College of Staten Island men’s tennis team was indoors today for the official start of their CUNYAC schedule, and it did not go favorably as Baruch College handed the Dolphins a tough, 7-2, defeat. The win improved the Bearcats’ record to 5-3 overall and 2-0 in the CUNYAC, while the Dolphins fell to 1-2, 0-1, respectively.
Playing at the Alley Pond Tennis Center, Baruch was up from start to finish, beginning with a sweep of doubles in three hard-fought matches. In the top-spot, the BC team of Jaime Zurro and Marco Gobbato proved too much for CSI’s Akaki Dundua and Andrew Adia, 8-4, and one flight lower, it was the Baruch team of Lewis Pena and Michael Dozortsev coming up on top of Raymond Hwang and Matthew Vesci, 8-5.
The most competitive doubles match came at No. 3, but there it was again the Bearcats that prevailed. Leonard Margolis and Clement Lacoudre were able to out-do the CSI duo of David Luo and Alex Tsui, by an 8-6 count.
Baruch as able to clinch victory right at the top of the order, as Zurro at No. 1, Gobbato at No. 2 and Margolis at No. 2 all posted straight-set wins to tidy up the match. CSI was able to grab a nice win in the No. 6 spot, where Tsui motored past Lacoudre, 6-2, and 6-0. Two steps higher at No. 4, Matthew Vesci scored a big win against BC’s Pena, winning the first set, 6-1, then droppeding the second set 7-5 before rallying to win a third-set tiebreaker, 12-10. For Vesci, it was his first singles win of the season.
After a pair of 7-2 losses, CSI will try to get back on the winning side of the ledger tomorrow, when they host Sarah Lawrence College at 1pm at the CSI Tennis Center, their home opener of the season.
