ORLANDO, Fla. – The Union College men's tennis team finished off its Spring Break trip with a split of two matches on Tuesday, falling to DePauw University by a 6-3 score before ending the week on a good note with an 8-1 victory over St. Olaf College at the USTA National Campus.
 
Ten different players had at least one win on the day for Union (3-6), led by junior Austin Gregory with a perfect 3-0 day, while senior Dimitris Binopoulos, junior Ben Jacobs, and first-years Solen Bellemare and Daniel Saxe both had a pair of wins.
 
Union took a 2-1 lead after doubles play in the first match of the day against DePauw, but four third-set supertiebreakers went the way of the Tigers in a 6-3 defeat.
 
The match started strong for Union, winning at first and third doubles to take an early lead. After DePauw grabbed a win at the second flight, Gregory and Saxe picked up an 8-6 win at the third flight to even the score. Binopoulos and Jacobs followed with an 8-5 first-doubles win to give Union an edge.
 
Union took a 3-1 lead after Bellemare outlasted Scott Anderson in a fifth-singles supertiebreaker, holding on for a 6-1, 1-6, (10-8) victory. However, four supertiebreakers and one second-set tiebreak all went the way of DePauw. Jacobs, Saxe and junior Seth Prusko all battled back from a set to win the second and force the extra frame, but came up a few points short from victory. First-year Keita Fukushima also had his match go to a superbreaker at the third flight, while Binopoulos came a tiebreak short of forcing one of his own at second singles.
 
Union went with a different lineup for its second match of the day against St. Olaf, and the changes produced results as 10 different players recorded at least one win in an 8-1 victory.
 
The Garnet Chargers started the match by sweeping the three doubles matches. Prusko and Gregory started off with an 8-2 third-doubles win, a score matched by Jacobs and Binopoulos at the top flight. Bellemare and Fukushima completed the doubles sweep with an 8-4 victory.
 
Junior Ian Schunk started the single scoring with a 6-4, 6-2 win at fifth singles before St. Olaf earned its only point of the day at the second flight. Gregory completed his perfect afternoon by coming back to outlast Cathal Mee at fourth singles, 2-6, 6-1, (10-4), followed by Saxe moving up to the top flight to defeat Bogdan Vizoli, 6-4, 2-6, (10-4). Senior Khai Ton and sophomore Christian Crowder both won in supertiebreakers as well, with Ton knocking off Jakub Belik by a 7-6, 4-6, (10-6) score and Crowder outlasting Ryan Birnesser in a marathon, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-0), (10-7).
 
After a well-deserved break, Union will head back north before returning to action on April 4 at SUNY Oneonta.