Men's Tennis | 4/26/2017 8:40:00 PM
ONEONTA, NY – Hartwick led the doubles portion, 2-1, before visiting Utica took two singles' matches midway through to tie things up at 3-3 on Wednesday. The Hawks would go on to take the final three matches of the afternoon to put the Pioneers away 6-3 and win their second in a row and first in conference. Hartwick is now 3-8 and 1-6 in the Empire 8 while Utica drops to 1-9 and 0-7.
The 'Wick duos of
John Talbot (Middlesex, NY/Marcus Whitman) and
Krishna Patel (Brunswick, ME/Pine Tree Academy) at No. 1 and
Drew Tyrol (Old Lyme, CT/Lyme-Old Lyme) and
Quinn McQuade (Oyster Bay, NY/Chaminade) at No. 3 gave the Hawks an early 2-0 lead.
Nick Adamou (New Milford, CT/New Milford) and
Ross Braue (Canastota, NY/Canastota) would fall by a slim two-point margin at No. 2 putting Utica on the board before singles play.
Talbot blanked Utica's Christopher Dunn in the first set at the top flight before giving up a mere two points in the second for the 3-1 'Wick lead.
The Pioneers won at fifth and sixth singles, respectively, to deadlock play on Hartwick Courts, 3-3, with three flights still in action.
After Patel took a convincing 6-2 first set victory at No. 2, Utica's Garett Noake battled back in the second set. In the end, Patel would win the set's final two points for the 6-4 victory to put the Hawks back in front one.
Braue at No. 4 and Adamou at No. 3 played through three-sets. Braue eked out a 6-4 victory in the first set but fell on the wrong side of that same clip in the second. He would go on to put up a 6-0 comeback rewarding Hartwick the insurmountable lead. Adamou's 6-2 (4), 6-7, 6-3 win rounded out scoring.
The Hawks have just one more match remaining on their schedule. Stevens visits Hartwick this Saturday with the first serve set for 10 a.m.
