Men Wrap Up Regular Season with Two-Day Swing, Will Compete as Third Seed in NAC Tournament

Mike Zerniak stretching to return a shot versus Utica.
Riikka Olson

DELHI, N.Y. (April 18, 2019) – The SUNY Delhi men's tennis team competed back-to-back weekday matches Wednesday and Thursday to finish out the regular season. The Broncos opened things with welcoming Utica Wednesday, where they fell by a 9-0 score. Delhi then traveled to MCLA Thursday to wrap up its NAC season, narrowly getting edged out in a tight 5-4 match.

The men will compete as the third seed at the NAC Tournament on Saturday, April 27 after posting a 4-7 overall record and 2-2 conference ledger. Set to take place at The Edge in Essex Junction, Vt., the Broncos will rematch two-seed MCLA in the conference semifinals at 9:00 a.m., with the winner moving on to the championship later that day at 3:30 p.m. Thomas has secured the top seed for the tourney, and will play either Northern Vermont Lyndon or Northern Vermont Johnson, barring which of the two will win their conference matchup this Saturday. The winner of the NAC, which competes as the East Division, will square off with the victor of the NEAC, which serves as the West Division, on Sunday, May 5.  

UTICA 9, DELHI 0

The two tandem of Christopher Balogh and Bailey Lane provided the closest match for Delhi in the doubles competition, narrowly coming up short by an 8-6 score to Paul Litvak and Ethan Trembley. Although five singles contests were won by the Pioneers in straight sets, a few sets were closely played by the Broncos. After two singles player Payton Dean dropped a 6-1 first set, he challenged Austin McGrain in the second set, sending it to a seven-point tiebreaker tied at 6-6, where McGrain ultimately gathered the tiebreaker, 7-3. Lane was narrowly defeated by Trembley, 7-5, in the first set of his four singles match, after which Trembley earned a 6-1 second-set victory for the sweep. Jake Robinson posed a three-set threat against Tyler Pietrowski at five, with both sides exchanging 6-4 set wins before Pietrowski won the third, 6-0.

MCLA 5, DELHI 4

The Broncos took two doubles matches at one and three, each by 8-6 scores. The top pairing of Marcos Andrino and Christopher Balogh downed Charles Najimy and Matt Bluteau, while Bailey Lane and Jake Robinson beat Briana Higgins and Mackenna Jordan. The match then took on a seesaw pace over at singles. With Delhi and MCLA each taking two straight-set wins, the one and five matches both went to three sets, which were both won by the Trailblazers for the deciding victories.

Balogh beat Matt Bluteau in the two spot, 6-2 and 6-0, while Michael Zerniak edged out Nick Castle at the, 7-6 and 7-5. With MCLA wins at four and six, the attention shifted towards the tiebreakers at one and five. Marcos Andrino won the first set, 6-1, at one over Najimy, who went on to win set two, 6-3, and the deciding frame, 6-4. Robinson took a 6-3 opening-set victory versus Mohamed Mahrous at five, only for Mahrous to take the next set by the same score, and claiming the deciding box by a 6-2 score.