Feb. 28, 2009

New York, N.Y. - Stony Brook's men's tennis team had a tough go of it this morning as it traveled into New York to take on Columbia University. The Seawolves could not come up with a point in the match, which the Lions took by a 7-0 score to break Stony Brook's two-match win streak.

Columbia took the doubles point on the strength of a pair of 8-3 wins at Nos. 1 and 2. The Stony Brook No. 3 team of senior Youssef Fassi-Fehri (Fes, Morocco) and freshman Mitch Wong (Tampa, Fla.) came close in their match, dropping a close 8-7 (7-5) decision.

Columbia clinched the match in singles play by winning four of the six contests in straight sets. Junior Halvar Dil (Amersfoort, Netherlands) won the first set of his match at No. 2 singles against Bogdan Borta, only to see his opponent come back to win. The story was the same at No. 5 singles for freshman Bertrand Marcos (Paris, France) who also won the first set of his match only to see his opponent come back to take a 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 win.

Stony Brook (5-3) will be off until Sunday, March 8 when it will travel to Princeton University to take on the Tigers in a 4:00 p.m. match.

Columbia 7, Stony Brook 0
Singles
1. Jon Wong (CU) def. Ivan Rummel; 6-0, 6-2
2. Bogdan Borta (CU) def. Halvar Dil; 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 10-8
3. Mihai Nichifor (CU) def. Jon Epstein; 6-2, 7-5
4. Ekin Sezgen def. Youssef Fassi-Fehri; 6-2, 6-4
5. Haig Schneiderman (CU) def. Bertrand Marcos; 4-6, 6-3, 10-5
6. Rajeev Deb-Sen (CU) def. Mitch Wong; 6-3, 6-3

Doubles
1. Borta/Nichifor (CU) def. Rummel/Dil; 8-3
2. Wong/ Schneiderman (CU) def. Epstein/Marcos; 8-3
3. Dan Urban/Deb-Sen (CU) def. Fassi-Fehri/Wong; 8-7 (7-5)