POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's tennis team used some late heroics from the top of its singles lineup to pull out a critical victory on Saturday when the team hit the road for a crucial Liberty League match at Vassar. The victory snapped a five-match losing skid for the Bombers, who improve to 3-6 on the year and 3-2 in Liberty League action.
 
Entering the day on a five-match slide that started during IC's trip to Florida for spring break, the Bombers knew that this would be a critical match to help keep alive its postseason hopes. Trailing 4-3 in an extremely close matchup between two sides fighting for positioning near the edge of postseason qualification, Ithaca was able to pick critical wins from sophomore Minos Stavrakas in first-singles and junior Sam McGrath at second-singles to overcome the deficit in the thrilling 5-4 win.
 
Stavrakas got the comeback bid started at first-singles in his matchup against David Grandham. The sophomore showed strong resolve after a late break of serve cost him the first set in a 6-4 loss. He rallied in big fashion scoring, a 6-3 win the second set to force a decisive third frame. He kept the momentum going, breaking Grandham's serve several times in the 6-1 victory that leveled the match at 4-4. With the win, Stavrakas improved to 5-0 in Liberty League singles play.
 
McGrath put the cap on the thrilling match with an exciting matchup of his own against Vassar's Adam Krueger in the second flight. IC's junior took the early edge in the battle with a 6-4 win in the opening set; however, the Brewers' man pulled back into the matchup with a 6-4 win in the second frame. McGrath was able to score two crucial service breaks in the final frame to secure the victory and the match for IC 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
 
Sophomore Sam Fried and senior Lorenzo Viguie-Ramos also picked up singles wins in straight sets, which paved the way for the comeback, as IC trailed 2-1 coming out of doubles play. Fried won his fifth-singles bout against Nicolas Demaria 6-3, 7-5, while Viguie-Ramos bested Zamir Birnbach 6-1, 6-2 at sixth-singles.
 
Ithaca's lone win in doubles came from Stavrakas and sophomore Colten Lavery in the second-doubles matchup. The all-sophomore tandem briefly gave Ithaca a 1-0 lead in the match with an 8-2 triumph over Jamie Anderson and Robin Drummond. Unfortunately, that did not last as, twice Vassar pulled ahead 2-1 in doubles, and later 4-3 in the singles session.
 
Ithaca returns to action on Saturday, April 7, when it travels to Ewing, N.J., to face TCNJ in a match starting at 11:00 a.m.