SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's tennis team battled hard against ITA #69 Vassar College on Saturday afternoon, but the Garnet Chargers could not pull off the upset in a 5-2 loss to the Brewers in Liberty League action at Sportime Schenectady.
 
Senior Ben Jacobs was a double winner for Union (5-11, 1-4 Liberty League) on the afternoon and both sophomore Solen Bellemare and first-year Jesus Sosa were a part of one win each for the Garnet Chargers.
 
Union came a tiebreaker short of taking the opening point to start the day in doubles play. After Vassar (9-9, 5-2 Liberty League) started out with a win at the third flight, Sosa and Jacobs battled to knock off Fernando Bauermeister and Eugene Lee by a 7-5 score to even the match, getting a break at 6-5 to finish off the win. The home team had two match points at second doubles but the team of Bellemare and senior Seth Prusko could not finish off Miles Sondergaard Jensen and Joseph Braun, eventually falling by a 7-6 (7-4) score to give the visitors the first point.
 
The Brewers carried that momentum into singles play, earning wins at the first, second, fifth and sixth flights to clinch the victory.
 
Despite that, Jacobs and Bellemare fought hard at third and fourth singles to earn two points for their squad. Bellemare overcame a 6-2 first-set loss to storm past Arnav Agostinho, 6-2, 6-1, in their fourth-singles matchup. Jacobs also came back from dropping a 7-6 (6-3) first set to Braun, winning the second by a 6-3 margin and then fighting off three match points in the supertiebreaker before emerging with a 14-12 marathon win.
 
Union will return to action on Tuesday with a rescheduled matchup against #10 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute set for 4 p.m. at the Union Tennis Courts.