SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The #59 Union College men's tennis team set a new program record for wins in a season and clinched a Liberty League Tournament berth for the first time in three years with a hard-fought 4-3 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Thursday evening at the Union Tennis Courts.
Union (9-8, 3-3 Liberty League) earned its first victory over Rensselaer since 2011 to set a new program standard for single-season wins, besting the previous record of eight set back in 1974. The Garnet Chargers sit in sixth place in the conference with two matches remaining and could move to as high as fourth depending on results from this weekend.
Six Garnet Chargers recorded at least one win and first-year
Simon Philip earned a pair of victories to lead the home team to a big conference win.
Union started the day strong by taking two of three doubles matches to earn the opening point. Junior
Daniel Saxe and sophomore
Vivaan Gupta set the tone with a 6-0 win at the third flight over Sid Srinivasan and Gustave Viennet, before Philip and junior
Solen Bellemare pulled put a 6-4 second-doubles win over Debarshi Sen and Felix Puyplat to secure the point.
Philip countered an RPI sixth-singles win with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Sen at fifth singles, winning the final three games of the first set before sweeping the second stanza. Sophomore
Arhan Gupta moved Union within one point of a victory with a huge comeback win at the third flight over Srinivasan, dropping the first set 6-2 before roaring back to take 12 of the last 13 games with a 6-0, 6-1 finish.
After Rensselaer (4-11, 4-3 Liberty League) stayed alive with a fourth-singles win, sophomore
Jesus Sosa gutted out a comeback victory at the second flight over Tasmay Shah to clinch the win. Sosa dropped the first set by a 6-4 score, but replied in kind in the second set by earning the set's only break up 5-4 to even the match. The sophomore broke to go up 3-1 in the third set and held serve in his final three service games to finish off the win, completing his comeback on the third match point of the evening.
Union will continue its busy week on Saturday with a key Liberty League matchup against #55 Ithaca College beginning at 11 a.m. at the Union Tennis Courts.
