For Immediate Release: April 27, 2008
Contact: John Hartrick (hartrick@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-6800

BU men's tennis captures America East title with 4-3 win over UMBC
Top-seeded Bearcats advance to NCAAs for fourth time in six years

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Top-seeded Binghamton men's tennis (13-10) captured the pivotal doubles point and then won three singles matches to edge No. 2 UMBC 4-3 in the America East Championship match, Sunday at the Yale Tennis Center. With their fourth conference crown in the last six years, the Bearcats earn the automatic berth to the 64-team NCAA tournament, and will learn their first-round opponent Tuesday afternoon.

"We won it in pretty dramatic fashion," head coach Adam Cohen said. "It was a great team effort from everyone from start to finish. We needed everybody today and I'm so proud of our guys. We are looking forward to keeping our season going and playing in the NCAAs."

Freshman No. 5 singles player Arnav Jain (Mumbai, India) was the hero, battling back from 5-3 down in the final set of the final match to give Binghamton the winning margin. With the team score even at 3-3 and both teams gathered around his court, Jain, who was selected the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, delivered a clutch performance, despite severe leg cramps. He broke serve to pull within 5-4, and then held serve, broke again and held serve for the final 7-5 margin. Jain punctuated his comeback with a forehand winner on match point.

After winning the doubles point, BU's title prospects looked dim after dropping the first set in five of the six singles matches. But BU rallied to force third-sets at Nos. 1, 2 and 5 singles, and when freshman Sven Vloedgraven (Lochem, Netherlands) completed his 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 2, the Bearcats led 3-2 with two matches remaining. UMBC won the match at number one singles however, and appeared poised to win its second straight title with the serve and 5-3 lead at No. 5.

"It was a rollercoaster of emotions," Cohen said of the drama, which lasted nearly four hours. "Arnav was our hero today. He gutted out the win, and actually won the last three games handlily."

Junior Sebastian Dietz (Leun, Germany) gave BU its other singles win - a convincing 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 4.

Jain raised his team-best record to 18-3 overall, 16-2 in duals. Vloedgraven improved to 17-8 overall, 15-5 in duals.

RESULTS

No. 1 Binghamton 4, No. 2 UMBC 3

Doubles
1. Mohamed/Berner (BU) def. Jackson/Shamsdin (UMBC) 8-3
2. Dietz/Vloedgraven (BU) def. Pollack/Ferreria (UMBC) 8-3
3. Jain/Levy (BU) led Meyer/Voorman (UMBC) 7-5

Singles
1. Chris Meyer (UMBC) def. Faisal Mohamed (BU) 7-6, 2-6, 7-5
2. Sven Vloedgraven (BU) def. Nick Savage-Pollack (UMBC) 5-7, 6-3, 6-3
3. Irfan Shamasidin (UMBC) def. Moshe Levy (BU) 6-4, 6-3
4. Sebastian Dietz (BU) def. David Jackson (UMBC) 6-3, 6-3
5. Arnav Jain (BU) def. Fredi Voorman (UMBC) 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 (down 3-5)
6. Fernando Ferreria (UMBC) def. Gregoire Berner (BU) 6-3, 6-2

Order of finish: 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, 5

NOTES
Previously, Binghamton won conference titles in 2003, 2004 and 2005... The entire NCAA Championship draw will be unveiled live in ESPNews Tuesday afternoon beginning at approximately 2 p.m.