Box Score (PDF)
 
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's tennis team had its 2017-18 campaign come to an end on Friday afternoon when the Bombers took to the courts at Cornell's Reis Tennis Center for the opening day of the 2018 Liberty League Championships. The Bombers entered the day as the fourth-seed for the tournament, while they faced fifth-seeded Vassar College in the first of two Quarterfinal Round matches to kick off the opening day of competition. Sadly, IC was unable to score a second victory over the Brewers this season, as the team fell in a 6-3 final on Friday. With the loss, Ithaca concludes the season with a 6-10 record overall record.
 
Entering the day on Friday, all the signs pointed to another close battle between two teams that played one of the most competitive matches of the Liberty League slate earlier this season in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The Bombers came out on top of that one by virtue of a thrilling comeback to win 5-4. Unfortunately, the script was reversed on Friday, as this time the Brewers evaporated an early deficit with a dominant performance in singles to take the match and advance to tomorrow's Liberty League Semifinal.
 
Unlike the last match between the two sides, Ithaca got off to a strong start during the doubles session. Although the Bombers conceded the first team point at third-doubles when junior Garrett Boleslav and sophomore Liam Spiegel dropped an 8-4 decision against Allen Sokolov and Nick Zuczek, IC rallied to score wins in the first and second flights to snatch a 2-1 lead.
 
Sophomores Minos Stavrakas and Colten Lavery picked up their ninth win as a tandem this season with a big performance at first-doubles to level the match at 1-1. The battle went down to the wire, as the Brewers' top grouping of Adam Krueger and Jeremy Auh would not miss a beat. IC's duo was finally able to score the decisive separation in the 16^th game of the sequence, as Stavrakas and Lavery denied Vassar a tiebreak opportunity in the 9-7 win.
 
The second-doubles battle was equally thrilling, as the upperclassmen tandem of junior Sam McGrath and senior Lorenzo Viguie-Ramos pushed Ithaca into its first lead of the day with another 9-7 triumph over Vassar's middle-duo of David Gandham and Jamie Anderson. It was a comeback effort for IC's combo, as McGrath and Viguie-Ramos fell into an early 0-3 hole, before battling back. The Bombers took five of the next six games following the slow start to surge into the lead, before seeing things out in a similar fashion to Stavrakas and Lavery, clinching the big team point in the 16^th game of the bout to win 9-7.
 
While spirits were lifted coming out of the doubles session with the lead, the good feeling did not last once action in singles got underway. Playing shorthanded due to the loss of sophomore fourth-singles mainstay Max Prestwich to a season-ending injury, the impact really put the Bombers into a challenging position of juggling the bottom half of the team's singles lineup. Compounding issues for IC was that Vassar also returned top-singles player Adam Sokolov, which bolstered the length and depth of the lineup. Unfortunately, it was too much for the Bombers to deal with, as Vassar took five-of-six singles bouts to clinch the match.
 
Vassar leveled the match at 2-2 quickly in the singles action, as Jamie Anderson controlled matters from the outset in a 6-1, 6-0 win over Viguie-Ramos. Although Ithaca reestablished a lead when Stavrakas capped his outstanding sophomore campaign with his 15^th victory in a 6-0, 6-0 sweep of Sokolov, the Bombers found themselves down a set in all four of the remaining singles bouts.
 
Vassar pushed IC to the brink with wins at fourth-singles and third-singles, respectively. In fourth, Jeremy Auh defeated IC sophomore Sam Fried 6-1, 6-3. The third-singles match was a little closer, Lavery matched Vassar's Adam Krueger in a close opening set that was decided by a late break in a 6-4 win for Krueger. The Brewer netter carried over the momentum into the second frame, winning the set 6-2, to take the match 6-4, 6-2.
 
The Bombers were unable to stay alive in the remaining battled, which ended simultaneously. McGrath nearly forced a decisive third-set against Gandham at second-singles, but came up shy in a 6-2, 7-5 defeat. The third frame would not have occurred regardless, as Vassar's Nicolas Demaria wrapped things up on Court Six with a 6-4, 6-2 win over IC rookie George Lomas.
 
Despite the disappointing defeat, the Bombers have several positives to take out of their first season of Liberty League competition. Ithaca held its own against much more difficult competition, while the team returns talented and experience-laden roster next season.