SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's tennis team finished off its fall season with a flourish on Saturday, posting a 7-0 win over Farmingdale State College and a 6-1 triumph over Manhattanville University to secure the Garnet Cup title for the second straight year.
Junior
Riichi Nagatake and sophomore
Reilly Fowles led the way for Union (3-0) with four wins on the day, while sophomore
Alain Uzelac went 3-0 as well.
Union 7, Farmingdale State 0
Union started the day with a clean sweep of Farmingdale State, winning all six singles matches and all three doubles contests. Nagatake, Fowles and Uzelac all had two wins each to lead the Garnet Chargers.
Union won all three matches by the same 6-3 score, with all three finishing within five minutes of each other. Junior
Arhan Gupta and sophomore
Simon Philip earned the first win at the top flight over Henri Pothier and Kwaku Agyeman, followed by the clincher at third doubles from Fowles and Nagatake over Broc Brown and Myles Freelin. Uzelac and senior
Daniel Saxe finished the sweep at the second flight, defeating Luke Plana and Emil Sabovic.
Junior
Jesus Sosa earned the first point in singles play with a pair of 6-1 sets at the second flight to beat Agyeman. Seniors
Solen Bellemare and
Shreyas Kode clinched the victory by finishing within seconds of one another, with Bellemare's 6-3, 6-2 first-singles win over Pothier coming just before Kode's 6-2, 6-1 triumph at fourth singles over Danial Zindani.
Uzelac picked up his second win of the day at third singles, knocking off Michael Lerman by a 7-5, 6-4 score. Nagatake and Fowles followed in the double-win club to round out the first match, as Nagatake took out Brown 6-0, 6-3 at fifth singles and Fowles outlasted Plana at the sixth flight, 6-4, 6-4.
Union 6, Manhattanville 1
Union had a hard-fought match against Manhattanville in the championship round, but the Garnet Chargers battled through several close contests to pull out the victory. Kode, Fowles and Nagatake all played a role in two wins apiece for the home team in the victory.
The Garnet Chargers won two-of-three doubles matches to earn the opening point of the afternoon. Fowles and Nagatake quickly put Union ahead with a 6-0 third-flight win over Nicholas Gervasi and Sami Badre-Hume, but Kode and Uzelac needed to hold off a hard-charging Max Neny and Muhammad Abdullah at the second flight with a break at 6-5 to secure the point.
Taking that momentum into singles play, Union quickly earned wins at three of the top-four flights to clinch the victory. Saxe used a pair of 6-3 sets to defeat Neny in third-singles action, followed in quick succession by Kode's 6-1, 3-6, (10-4) fourth-flight win over Abdullah and Gupta's 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 triumph at the second flight over Elouan Charretteur.
After Manhattanville broke up the shutout at the top flight, Nagatake and Fowles finished off their perfect days at the bottom two flights with 6-0, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-1 wins, respectively.
Union will take the rest of the fall trimester off before returning to action with a full spring slate of matches beginning in late February.
