WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The William and Mary men's tennis team saw its four-match win streak come to an end at the hands of defending America East Champion Binghamton, dropping a 4-3 heartbreaker at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center on Friday evening. After sweeping the doubles, the Green and Gold received singles wins from seniors
Ben Guthrie and
John Banks, but the Bearcats answered with four triumphs in singles, including the final three in three sets. W&M fell to 6-6 on the year, while BU evened its mark at 3-3.
The Tribe captured the doubles point to open the match, sweeping all three spots from the Bearcats. Juniors
Aaron Chaffee and
Will Juggins continued their strong play at No. 1 with an 8-4 win over Alexander Maisin and Aswin Nambi, which entered on a three-match win streak. The reigning CAA Doubles Team of the Week won for the fifth time in its last six matches to improve to 6-2 at the top spot.
Playing together for the first time this season, Banks and sophomore
Scott Huang clinched the doubles point with a tiebreaker win at No. 3. The Tribe tandem outlasted Ismael Dinia and Eliott Hureau, 8-7 (3), to give the Green and Gold the initial point of the match. With its first win of the year, Banks and Huang improved to 7-4 over the last two seasons as a pair.
The senior twosome of Guthrie and
Ben Hoogland rounded out the doubles sweep with an 8-6 win over Robin Lesage and Vihar Shah at the No. 2 position. The Tribe duo teamed together for the first time since the 2012 dual match season.
Guthrie breezed to a victory at the No. 1 singles position to up the Tribe lead to 2-0. The senior did not drop a game in dominating All-America East player Robin Lesage, 6-0, 6-0. It marked his sixth win in the last seven matches as Guthrie improved to 11-5 overall and 4-1 at the No. 1 position.
After Binghamton got on the board with a singles win at No. 2, Banks won his sixth straight match to extend the Tribe advantage to 3-1. He won the opening set from Thomas Caputo in a tiebreaker, 7-6, at No. 6, before rolling to a 6-2 win in the second for his 12th victory of the season. Banks improved to a team-best 8-3 record in dual-match play.
The Bearcats answered with come-from-behind three-set wins at No. 3 and No. 4 to pull even with the Tribe at three and bring the balance of the match down to a three-setter at No. 5. Binghamton's Sid Hazarika won the opening set in a tiebreaker, 7-6, before the Tribe's
Scott Huang evened things with a 6-3 win in the second. Hazarika picked up steam in the third set, winning the final four games to pull out the 6-3 victory and clinch the team triumph for Binghamton.
W&M was originally scheduled to host a doubleheader on Saturday, but will play just one match at 5 p.m. against Villanova. The Tribe's contest with Richmond, which was slated for 10 a.m., was cancelled due to Richmond's university and departmental procedures relative to inclement weather. The Tribe-Wildcat match-up will be played at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center and live stats will be available on TribeAthletics.com.
Binghamton 4, William and Mary 3
Singles
No. 1 –
Ben Guthrie (W&M) def. Robin Lesage (Binghamton) – 6-0, 6-0
No. 2 – Ismael Dinia (Binghamton) def.
Ben Hoogland (W&M) – 6-2, 6-3
No. 3 – Alexander Maisin (Binghamton) def.
Will Juggins (W&M) – 2-6, 6-1, 6-4
No. 4 – Eliott Hureau (Binghamton) def.
Damon Niquet (W&M) – 2-6, 6-4, 6-0
No. 5 – Sid Hazarika (Binghamton) def.
Scott Huang (W&M) – 7-6, 3-6, 6-3
No. 6 –
John Banks (W&M) def. Thomas Caputo (Binghamton) – 7-6, 6-2
Finishing Order: 1, 2, 6, 4, 3, 5*
Doubles
No. 1 - Chaffee/Juggins (W&M) def. Nambi/Maisin (Binghamton) – 8-4
No. 2 – Guthrie/Hoogland (W&M) def. Lesage/Shah (Binghamton) – 8-6
No. 3 – Huang/Banks (W&M) def. Dinia/Hureau (Binghamton) – 8-7 (3)
Finishing Order: 1, 3*, 2
