For Immediate Release: February 26, 2005
Contact: John Hartrick (hartrick@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-6800

Binghamton men's tennis narrowly falls to Dayton 4-3 in marathon match
Bearcats' three-match win streak is snapped after nearly five hours of tennis

OLEAN, N.Y. - The Binghamton men's tennis team (8-4) won the doubles point but dropped four of the six singles matches and lost to Dayton (6-4) Saturday afternoon at the St. Bonaventure Fitness Center. The loss snapped BU's three-match win streak.

"They earned the match," head coach Michael Starke said of Dayton. "I felt that between our top three singles players, someone should've gotten the job done. We deserved to lose. They played a harder and better match. As pumped up as we were after yeterday's win - this takes a big bite out of it. I hope we learn from this and come together more as a team."

Junior Brian O'Connor (New Rochelle) was the lone double-winner of the day for the Bearcats. O'Connor teamed with sophomore Dan Hanegby (Herzliya, Israel) for an 8-5 victory at first doubles and then posted a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles, raising his career singles mark to 53-26.

Freshman No. 4 Faisal Mohamed (Lynbrook) posted the other singles win in a wild affair. Mohamed dropped the first set 6-1 before rallying for the win with back-to-back tiebreak wins in the second and third sets. He trailed 6-1 in the second-set tiebreak before rallying, and was down a match point in the third set at 5-4, before storming back.

The Bearcats will stay in Olean to face Dayton Saturday morning.

DOUBLES
1. Hanegby/O'Connor (BU) def. Altenau/Khoury (D), 8-5
2. Murphy/O'Connell (D) def. Dobrin/Mohamed (BU), 8-6
3. Mourad/Gerard (BU) def. Jones/Cabrera (D), 8-2

SINGLES
1. Rob Altenau (D) def. Dan Hanegby (BU), 7-5, 1-6, 6-3
2. Tom Murphy (D) def. Richemn Mourad (BU), 6-4, 6-3
3. James O'Connell (D) def. Alex Dobrin (BU), 6-4, 6-4
4. Faisal Mohamed (BU) def. Rex Cabrera (D), 1-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3)
5. Jonathan Khoury (D) def. Edwin Gerard (BU), 7-6 (11-9), 4-6, 6-3
6. Brian O'Connor (BU) def. Jamison Downs (D), 6-2, 6-1