Men's Tennis | 5/6/2016 11:03:00 AM

TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
ITHACA, N.Y. — The Ithaca College men's tennis team earned the No. 2 seed for this weekend's Empire 8 postseason tournament, and the Bombers enter the tournament as the field's hottest team, boasting an eight-match winning streak.
 
No. 2 Ithaca (12-5, 7-1 Empire 8) will face No. 3 St. John Fisher (9-8, 5-3) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening in one semifinal at the Binghamton Racquet Club.
 
No. 1 Stevens (16-7, 8-0) will face No. 4 Nazareth (6-11, 5-3) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the other semifinal. The two winners will square off for the conference championship at 11 a.m. Sunday on the Stevens campus. The conference champion earns the Empire 8's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III tournament.
 
On the year, the Bombers posted five sweeps in eight conference matches. Their only conference loss of the year came to Stevens, which earned the regular-season championship and the right to host the two-day tournament, May 7-8 in Hoboken, N.J.
 
Ithaca has advanced to the Empire 8 championship match in each of the last 13 seasons, with the Bombers emerging with five league championships during that span. Ithaca last won the conference title during the 2009 season.
 
Stevens has not lost to an Empire 8 opponent since a 5-4 setback against Ithaca on April 10, 2010, a stretch of 48 consecutive matches. The Ducks are the six-time champions of the Empire 8, while Ithaca is second in championship history with five conference titles.

Ithaca went 2-1 against fellow postseason participants, sweeping Nazareth 9-0 on April 12 and besting St. John Fisher 7-2 on April 3.
 
This year's Bombers feature five players with nine or more singles wins, led by senior Chris Hayes, who has earned first-team all-conference honors for both singles and doubles every year on South Hill.
 
Hayes has gone 15-3 overall in singles play (14-2 in dual matches), followed by junior Wes Davis (13-3), sophomore Lorenzo Viguie-Ramos (13-4), junior Brandon Buksbaum (10-8), and junior Nate Wolf (9-7).
 
Freshman Stefan Lazarevic has won seven of 10 singles matches on the year, while classmate Michael Gardiner has won seven of 13 singles matches for the Bombers.
 
Buksbaum, Davis, Hayes, Lazarevic, Viguie-Ramos and Wolf each went 6-1 in singles matches against conference foes.
 
Ithaca won 67.2 percent of its singles matches (78 of 116), including 69.6 percent of conference clashes (71 of 102).
 
In doubles action, Ithaca won 57.1 percent of its matches (32 of 56), including 60.8 percent of conference clashes (31 of 51).
 
Hayes has gone 11-6 in doubles matches, Davis is 10-6, Wolf is 9-7, Viguie-Ramos is 8-9, Buksbaum is 7-3, Lazarevic is 7-10, and Gardiner is 6-4 during the 2015-16 season.
 
Championship Format:
Dual match is played until decision. Three doubles matches are followed by six singles matches, starting by position order.

Schedule:
Semifinals, May 7
Match 1 - No. 1 Stevens vs. No. 4 Nazareth (6:30 p.m., Binghamton Racquet Club)
Match 2 - No. 2 Ithaca vs. No. 3. St. John Fisher (6:30 p.m., Binghamton Racquet Club)
Final, May 8
Match 3 - Stevens/Nazareth vs. Ithaca/St. John Fisher (11 a.m., Stevens Tennis Courts)
Match 3 Rain Format - Stevens/Nazareth vs. Ithaca/St. John Fisher (1 p.m., Binghamton Racquet Club)