Feb. 20, 2010

New York, N.Y. - Stony Brook University's men's tennis team dropped its first match of the season on Saturday, falling to host Columbia, 5-2. The Seawolves are now 5-1.

Columbia opened the match by taking all three doubles matches. Sophomore Mitch Wong (Tampa, Fla.) and senior Halvar Dil (Amersfort, Netherlands) lost a close 9-7 decision at the No. 1 spot.

The Lions carried that momentum to singles action as they won the first three matches of the court to secure the victory. Dil and senior Jon Epstein (Silver Spring, Md.) earned the Seawovles two points on the day.

Epstein defeated Cyril Bucher at No. 4, 7-6, 7-5, while Dil defeated Haig Schneiderman, 7-6, 6-7 (1), 1-0 (12). After splitting the first two sets, Dil then won the super tiebreaker, which was played instead of a third set because the match had already been decided, 12-10.

The men return to action next weekend for the Yale 4-Way, during which they will compete against Marist and Fairleigh Dickinson in addition to the host Bulldogs.

Columbia 5, Stony Brook 2
Doubles
1. Wong/Nichifor (CU) def. Dil/Wong (SB), 9-7
2. Schneiderman/Gery (CU) def. Rummel/Kailaheimo (SB), 8-2
3. Kevin Kung/Deb-Sen (CU) def. Shvartz/Tiwari (SB), 8-4

Singles
1. Jonathan Wong (CU) def. Ivan Rummel (SB), 6-1, 6-1
2. Mihai Nichifor (CU) def. Roope Kailaheimo (SB), 6-1, 6-2
3. Halvar Dil (SB) def. Haig Schneiderman (CU), 7-6, 6-7(1), 1-0 (12)
4. Jon Epstein (SB) def. Cyril Bucher (CU), 7-6, 7-5
5. Rajeev Deb-Sen (CU) def. Mitch Wong (SB), 6-4, 7-5
6. Nathaniel Gery (CU) def. Palash Tiwari (SB), 6-2, 6-2