The College of Staten Island men’s tennis team won for the second straight outing, getting passed CUNYAC-Champion Hunter College, 7-2, in a match played earlier this afternoon at the CSI Tennis Center. With the win, CSI lifted its overall mark to 7-4 and CUNYAC record to 3-1, while the Hawks fell to 5-2, 4-1, respectively.
CSI did a host of its damage by winning three critical doubles matches to take a commanding, 3-0, lead after doubles play, winning a series of tough contests. The team of Riad Hamai and Giorgio Dano were the first to register a win, striking down the Hunter team of Robert Frischling and Stanislav Tsoy, by an 8-1.
From there, however, the matches got more intense. After a feverish rally at No. 2 by the Hunter tandem of Thomas Lin and Mark Goldfinger, the CSI team of Joe Taranto and Masaru Takaki were able to pull ahead to stay, coasting to an 8-5 winner. That left a heated match at No. 1, where CSI’s Patrick Thomas and Nick Zikos were paired with Hunter tandem Yevgeny Perpelov and Arthur Kapetanakis.
After trading service breaks, CSI pulled ahead 7-5, but with Perpelov on serve, the Hawks ripped off a point and then another, and then seized momentum by taking an 8-7 lead. Not letting down, the Dolphins duo rallied to post a win in the next point to force a seven-point tiebreaker. Perpelov aced a winner to make it 4-4, but from there Thomas hit two straight winners down the middle of the court to help CSI to a 9-8 (7-4) win.
Needing just a pair of flights to clinch a win, CSI was able to deliver. Hunter got closer with a Perpelov win at the No. 1 Singles flight, but that was answered by a 6-2, 6-1, win by Gary Ambartsumov for CSI at No. 6, to give CSI a 4-1 lead. A few minutes later, Hamai put the finishing touches on a 6-1, 6-2, win at No. 3 over Lin to clinch the win.
Playing out the rest of the field, Joe Taranto scored a powerful 6-1, 6-2, win at No. 5, and after a lengthy match at No. 2, Zikos downed Kapetanakis, 6-4, 6-4. In the final match, Hunter was able to score another win at No.4, where Goldfinger downed Takaki, 3-6, 6-0, 10-8.
CSI will be off on Friday and return to action on Saturday, when they continue their CUNYAC slate by traveling to York College, to take on the Cardinals at 12 Noon.
