POUGHKEEPSIE, NY - Sophomore Connor Biernat powered his way to victory in #5 singles to secure a 5-4 victory for Skidmore College against Vassar College in Liberty League men's tennis action on Saturday afternoon. The match, which was played at Walker Field House, sees the Thoroughbreds remain perfect on the young season at 2-0 (all in league play), while the Brewers shoulder their first loss of the year and are now 3-1 (2-1 Liberty League).
Doubles action kicked things off and Vassar struck first as juniors
David Gandham (Ann Arbor, MI) and
Adam Krueger (Bay Village, OH) bested junior Suraj Mahtani (Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong) and freshman Alpur Kulturel (Istanbul, Turkey) by an 8-5 margin in the second flight. Skidmore evened things up in third doubles as senior Jason Keye (New Rochelle, NY) and senior Jack McClaren (East Aurora, NY) edged junior
Nicolas Demaria (New Hyde Park, NY) and sophomore
Mathew Yee (Sha Tin, Hong Kong), 8-6.
The visiting Thoroughbreds grabbed the 2-1 advantage out of doubles as senior JT Wynne (Indianapolis, IN) and freshman Brendan Jimenez (Lynn, MA) earned an 8-6 win over seniors
Jeremy Auh (Scottsdale, AZ) and
Allen Sokolov (Woodland Hills, CA) at one.
McClaren puhsed the margin to 3-1 to open singles play as he recorded a 6-2, 6-1 win against Yee from two. The Brewers countered at #1 as Gandham bested Wynne, 6-2, 6-2, but Skidmore answered once again as Kulturel got past
Adam Krueger, 7-6, 6-3 for the 4-2 lead in the match.
Vassar closed the gap even further from four as Sokolov gutted out a 6-2, 2-6, 6-0 win against Mahtani, but it would be Biernat (Columbus, OH) at five with a hard-fought 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 win over Auh to seal the match victory with the fifth point.
Sophomore
Mihajlo Ivanovic (Belgrade, Serbia) - the reigning Liberty League Singles Performer of the Week - kept up his momentum to wrap up the match with a 6-2, 6-3 win over freshman Sergiu Celebidachi (Surrey, England) at six.
Vassar is right back in action on Sunday when it hosts Clark at 12pm back in Walker Field House. Skidmore is back on court next Saturday, hosting RIT at 1pm.
