SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's tennis team picked up a key Liberty League victory on Friday afternoon, defeating St. Lawrence University by a 6-3 score at Sportime Tennis Club.
The victory was an important one for Union (4-8, 2-2 Liberty League) during the early portion of conference play, moving the team into fifth place in the Liberty League standings. St. Lawrence (7-7, 3-2 Liberty League) falls to fourth place with the loss.
Senior
Dimitris Binopoulos, junior
Ben Jacobs and first-year
Solen Bellemare were all double winners for the Garnet Chargers on the day, playing a role in five of the team's six victories. Senior
Khai Ton also picked up a victory in singles play for Union as well.
After SLU started the match with a quick win at third doubles, Union responded well with wins at the top-two flights to take a lead into singles play. Bellemare and classmate
Keita Fukushima evened the match with an 8-3 win over Ben Moolman and Cole Hamilton at second doubles, winning six of the first seven games to take control early. Binopoulos and Jacobs followed up with an 8-5 victory over Adam Heilbronner and Broderick Pinto at the top flight, earning breaks on SLU's last two service games to secure the key point.
The Saints again struck quickly in singles play to knot the score at two, but Jacobs and Binopoulos churned out big wins at the top-two flights to put Union one match away from a victory. Binopoulos earned two breaks in the first set to win 6-4, then outlasted Pinto 8-6 in a second-set tiebreaker to complete the second-singles sweep. Jacobs needed three sets to pull away from Heilbronner in first-singles play, winning the first set in a tiebreaker and coming on strong in the third set in a 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-3 victory.
Moolman kept SLU alive with a win at fourth singles, but Union closed down the match with wins at the bottom two flights. Bellemare provided the clinching point at fifth singles with a pair of 6-4 sets to beat John Hill-Edgar, and Ton finished off the afternoon by defeating Aidan Baracao by a 7-5, 6-1 score.
Union will return to the courts on Wednesday with a matchup at nationally ranked Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute beginning at 4 p.m.
