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ORLANDO, Fla. – The Ithaca College men's tennis team was back on the courts at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) National Campus in Orlando, Florida, on Monday afternoon in the second day of action of the team's Spring Break trip. Unfortunately, IC's early-season struggles continued against top-flight competition, as the Bombers suffered a pair of 9-0 sweep defeats to the United States Coast Guard Academy and No. 9 Case Western Reserve University. The two defeats dropped Ithaca's record to 0-5 this spring.
 
Coast Guard 9 – Ithaca 0
Doubles
1. Banks Evans/Kyle Fager (USCGA) def. Colten Lavery/Liam Spiegel (IC) | 8-1
2. Lucas Arora/Chris Lansing (USCGA) def. Sam Fried/George Lomas (IC) | 8-4
3. Arthur Wicke/James Vuille-Kowing (USCGA) def. Max Sobel/Artem Khaybullin (IC) | 8-3
 
Singles
1. Banks Evans (USCGA) def. Colten Lavery (IC) | 6-1, 4-6, 10-1
2. Lucas Arora (USCGA) def. Liam Spiegel (IC) | 6-2, 6-4
3. Arthur Wicke (USCGA) def. Sam Fried (IC) | 6-4, 7-5
4. Chris Lansing (USCGA) def. George Lomas (IC) | 6-3, 6-4
5. Kyle Fager (USCGA) def. Artem Khaybullin (IC) | 3-6, 7-5, 11-9
6. James Vuille-Kowing (USCGA) def. Max Sobel (IC) | 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), 12-10
 
Ithaca opened the day's action on the synthetic hard courts when it jumped back into action against Coast Guard. Unfortunately, another slow start during the doubles session put the Bombers in another big 3-0 hole. The closest battle came in the second-slot matchup with senior Sam Fried and junior George Lomas going toe-to-toe against Coast Guard's Lucas Arora and Chris Lansing. The IC duo hung tough early, but ultimately couldn't keep pace in an 8-4 defeat.
 
The other two tandem matches were not as close. Sophomore Artem Khaybullin and first-year Max Sobel dropped an 8-3 decision in the third-slot matchup, while seniors Colten Lavery and Liam Spiegel struggled to gain much momentum in the first-flight matchup, falling by an 8-1 margin.
 
The singles session against Coast Guard was the highlight of the day, but unfortunately Ithaca was unable to scratch away a victory in any of the six contests in today's opening match. Each and every singles battle was competitive, an encouraging rebound for the group after yesterday's more lopsided defeat to 13^th-ranked Carnegie Mellon. Highlighting the session were three matchups that went the full three-set distance.
 
Both Khaybullin and Sobel held early leads in their respective matches at fifth-singles and sixth-singles, respectively. Sadly neither Ithaca netter could seal the deal down the stretch.
 
Khaybullin took his opening set by a 6-3 margin, but Coast Guard's Kyle Fager forced a third-set super-breaker with a 7-5 triumph in the second. The super-breaker was competitive throughout with Fager ultimately stringing together multiple points in a row to emerge victorious 11-9.
 
Sobel was just a handful of points from claiming his first victory of the spring. He dominated the opening set, winning by a 6-1 count. The second set was extremely tight between him and Vuille-Kowing, eventually extending into a tiebreaker, which Coast Guard's man pulled out by a 7-5 margin to force a third-set super-breaker. Much like the battle in the fifth-slot, Sobel and Vuille-Kowing played 22 points to ultimately settle a winner, which the Bears netter ultimately prevailed by a 12-10 count.
 
Lavery was the other Bombers to force a third set on the day. He dropped his opening stanza against Banks Evans by a 6-1 margin, but rallied for a 6-4 win in the second set to send the first-singles matchup into a super-breaker. Sadly, Lavery ran out of steam in the third, falling to Banks by a 10-1 margin.
 
Fried, Lomas and Spiegel each scored multiple games in both sets of their respective battles at third-, fourth- and second-singles, respectively.
 
#9 Case Western 9 – Ithaca 0
Doubles
1. James Hopper/Neil Mabee (CASE) def. Colten Lavery/Liam Spiegel (IC) | 8-1
2. Aaron Umen/Chaitanya Aduru (CASE) def. Sam Fried/George Lomas (IC) | 8-2
3. Zach Hennessey/John Kasner (CASE) def. Artem Khaybullin/Max Sobel (IC) | 8-2
 
Singles
1. Jonathan Powell (CASE) def. Colten Lavery (IC) | 6-1, 6-0
2. Anthony Kanam (CASE) def. Liam Spiegel (IC) | 6-1, 6-2
3. Max Vicario (CASE) def. Sam Fried (IC) | 6-0, 6-1
4. Aris Jhaveri (CASE) def. George Lomas (IC) | 6-1, 6-3
5. Earl Hsieh (CASE) def. Artem Khaybullin (IC) | 6-1, 6-0
6. Henry Squire (CASE) def. Max Sobel (IC) | 6-1, 6-0
 
It was a quick turnaround for the Bombers later in the afternoon, as Ithaca made the switch-over to the clay courts for schedule addition against a ninth-ranked Case Western outfit that is one of the deepest and most talented programs in the country at the Division III level. Although the matchup was fairly one-sided for much of the late-afternoon, Ithaca gained some valuable experience against a top-flight foe like the Spartans and will look to take the lessons learned into further challenges in the Liberty League later this season.
 
Ithaca's second tandem of Fried and Lomas, as well as the third-duo of Khaybullin and Sobel scored a couple games in their respective doubles tilts. Lavery and Spiegel again found things difficult in the top-flight matchup, dropping another 8-1 decision.
 
Highlighting the singles session efforts were Spiegel and Lomas. Spiegel scored a pair of games in the second set of his second-singles matchup against Anthony Kanam. Lomas took three games in the second set of his fourth-singles battle against Aris Jhaveri. The other four matchups all ended with IC netters each scoring just a single game across two sets of action.
 
Ithaca will catch a breather over the next 36 hours, before returning to the courts on Wednesday evening for a 6:00 p.m. clash against Dickinson College.