Box Score Queens, NY | It took over four hours and spanned two venues, but in the end, the College of Staten Island men's tennis team scored a thrilling, 5-4, win over Brooklyn College as part of the CUNYAC Postseason Championship Tournament's Semifinal round this evening.  CSI (11-2), will go onto play top-seeded Baruch College on Saturday evening at the National Tennis Center in what will be their first Final appearance since 2013.  Brooklyn finalized their campaign at 7-9 overall.

Match play started at approximately 6pm at NTC, a few minutes after Baruch College defeated Hunter College, 5-1, in their semifinal.  At approximately 8:45pm, rains interrupted play with the match score tied at 3-3.  Play would continue but just a few minutes away on the campus of Queens College, utilizing the indoor courts there.  Just a few minutes after 10pm, CSI would put the finishing touches on the match that finished with the deciding point settled at No. 1 Singles.  There, Matthew Vesci took the win for CSI to advance the Dolphins into Final play on Saturday.

CSI was up, 2-1, after Doubles. The duo of Raymond Hwang and Lesly DeCastro looked dominant in an 8-1 win over Rohan Mathur and Jonathan Lum to get CSI started.  Then, CSI put themselves in better shape when the top team of Ivi Selenica and Alex Tsui were able to break service and score an 8-5 winner over Justin Vasquez and Julian Calame-Mars.

But BC scored a pivotal point in the No. 2 position, as Rohan Mathur and Remi Laurence stayed hot, improving to 7-0 on the season with an 8-3 win over CSI's Matthew Vesci and Tao Lin.  The match was a lot closer than the score would indicate, as each point was earned after long and extensive volleys back and forth.

Riding that momentum, Mathur would score a 6-2, 6-2, winner over Selenica at No. 2 Singles to immediately tie the score at 2-2, and Brooklyn then took their lead by virtue of Lum's quick win over CSI's Matthew Kotlyar, 6-1, 6-1.  By this time the mist was in the air, but CSi was able to squeeze back into the match with a 6-3, 7-5 win by Alex Tsui over Laurence in the No. 5 spot.  Knotting the score at 3-3.

With three Singles flights still left to be played, the rains halted play, and the decision was quickly made to pick up play at Queens College, where indoor courts had been secured for this purpose.  After the transport and a quick settling in, play resumed roughly 40 minutes later.

Once there, CSI took back the lead.  Hwang, at No. 3 was locked in a war with Calame-Mars.  Hwang won the opening set 7-6 (7-4), but Calame-Mars responded with a very efficient, 6-3, win in the second set.  On the indoor courts, however, Hwang punched back, breaking serve and then holding his own to score a 6-3 win in the deciding set, giving CSI a 4-3 edge.

The Dolphins had the chance to walk home a winner, but Christian Pena had other ideas for Brooklyn.  Playing in the No. 6 spot, Pena scored a 6-2 win over CSI's DeCastro, but DeCastro turned up his game in the second set, winning, 6-4.  In the third and final set the two were deadlocked at 5-5, and that's when Pena denied CSI's win by mustering up a pair of points to take the third set, 7-5.  That meant that all eyes shifted to the No. 1 spot, where Vesci was locked in battle with Vasquez.

Vasquez appeared comfortably in control in the first set, winning 6-2, but Vesci would crawl back, and take a marathon second set, breaking a 6-6 tie by winning the tiebreaker, 9-7.  The two moved on to the third set.  With plenty of support for both players, the two pawed back and forth, trading points, until ultimately, the score was level again at 6-6, forcing a match-deciding tiebreak.  There, Vesci was superior, stringing together points to take a 7-4 win in the tiebreak, clinching the win for CSI.

The Dolphins improved to 4-0 all-time against Brooklyn in postseason play.  Their match against Baruch on Saturday will be played indoors as well at the National Tennis Center.  Baruch defeated CSI during the regular season, 5-4.