GENEVA, N.Y. – The Union College men's tennis team had a successful first day at the 2021 ITA Northeast Regional Championships, as the team's four entries combined for four victories at the HWS Tennis Center.
 
The highlight of the day came on the doubles courts, as the tandem of junior Aidan O'Brien and senior Nick Weitzman won a pair of matches to advance to tomorrow's quarterfinals. The pair started the day with an upset, knocking off #5/8 seeded Alex Yang and Zachary Freier of New York University in convincing fashion, 8-2. The pair did not let down after that, outlasting Vassar College's Arvan Agostinho and Benjamin Almquist by an 8-6 score to advance to day two.

The pair are the first Union doubles team to advance to the quarterfinals since 2007, when Trey Minter and Vic Ravikumar reached the final eight before losing to current Union head coach Brian Bowman and partner Ryan Kovaleski.
 
A pair of Dutchmen earned first-round singles victories on Friday morning as well. O'Brien advanced to the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Kenneth Elliot of Ramapo College, while senior Ioannis Binopoulos got past Hamilton College's Nicolas Gritz, 6-4, 6-2. Both players fell to seeded opponents in the next round, as O'Brien dropped a 6-1, 6-0 decision to 5/8 seeded Yang and Binopoulos fell, 6-0, 6-3, to The College of New Jersey's 9/16 seeded Matthew Michibata.
 
First-year Ben Jacobs put a big scare into third-seeded Justin Wain of TCNJ in the opening round as well, but ultimately came up just a few points short in a pair of tiebreakers, falling by a 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) score.
 
Day two of the ITA Regional Championships will begin tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m.