Staten Island, NY | The College of Staten Island men's tennis team ran their winning streak up to seven games this afternoon, working up a 7-2 victory at home against CUNYAC-rivals John Jay College. The win also maintained CSI's perfect run in conference play, as they extended to 4-0 in the CUNYAC as well as 7-1 overall. John Jay fell to 2-6 overall and 1-4 in the CUNYAC with the loss.
Play started with Doubles and CSI won two flights quickly before taking a heavily-contested top flight which gave them plenty of confidence going into Singles holding a 3-0 lead. The first off the court was the duo of
Raymond Hwang and
Lesly DeCastro, as they were efficient in an 8-1 winner over Sean Kim and Shubbham Puri in the No. 3 flight. Moments later, the duo at No. 2 was finished, as
Matthew Vesci and
Tao Lin ran their Doubles record this season up to 7-1 with a win over Michael Barkagan and Azraf Amer by the same score.
Things were different in the top spot, were CSI duo
Ivi Selenica and
Alex Tsui were back-and-forth with JJC's Ahror Muminov and Terry Park. After evenly-exchanging points, CSI was finally able to score the decisive point when they needed it, taking a long and drawn out set, 8-6, giving CSI that critical 3-0 edge.
Singles is what decided play, and CSi did clinch early. Vesci was the first to post a win, sailing to a 6-0, 6-1, win in the No. 2 spot over Barkagan. Further down at No. 4
Alex Tsui was then the clincher, as he was able to defeat Kim, 6-0, 6-1, to give CSI the win at 5-0. From there, the teams would ultimately split the final four sets. First, CSI extended the lead as DeCAstro, in the No. 6 position was able to get past Amer, 6-2 and 7-5. A few minutes later, CSI's
Matthew Kotlyar, playing in the No. 5 position, took his flight over the Bloodhounds' Steve Guedes, 6-1, 4-6, 10-7.
With CSI up, 7-0, JJC saved their two wins for last, leaving on a positive note. First, at No. 1, Muminov was able to shake Selenica, winning 6-4, 6-3. The third set was then kind to JJC's Park at No. 3, as he was able to sneak past Hwang, 3-6, 7-5, 11-9.
The win for CSI clinched a first-round bye for CSI in the upcoming CUNYAC Postseason Tournament with two CUNYAC regular season matches still to play. The top two-seeds clinch a first round bye, and CSI has insured that they can finish no lower than second. A win over Lehman (1-4) tomorrow, would guarantee that CSI play for the regular season championship and the top seed in the tournament on Friday against first-place Baruch College (5-0).
CSI will square off against Lehman at 3pm tomorrow at the CSI Tennis Center.
