HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C.- Trailing the Roadrunners of Ramapo 4-2 heading into doubles play, the Gulls need to sweep but came up just short, taking two of the necessary three doubles contests to drop a close 5-4 match. Endicott moves to 2-1 in the Spring TennisFest and will now take on Fairmont St. on Thursday evening to wrap up their spring trip before heading home.
With the singles contests starting the day, the Gulls saw freshman Christopher Kirkpatrick (Newburyport, Mass.) improve to 3-0 in the tournament in singles play as he dispatched Jacob Khodakov (Old Bridge, N.J.) 6-3, 6-1 at #1 singles before Eric Pierce (Barrington, R.I.) earned a gritty 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 win at #2 singles over Willen Feygin (Fair Lawn, N.J.). With the win, Pierce improved to 2-0 on the spring trip.
Sophomore Sean McAndrews (Vineyard Haven, Mass.) battled to a third set tie break as well, coming up just short to Mike Friedman (Wyckoff, N.J.) in their #5 singles match by a score of 4-6, 7-5, 10-8. Ramapo took the other three singles matches with Mike Abelev (Fair Lawn, N.J.) winning #3 singles 6-1, 6-1, Justin Bevilaqua (Bergenfield, N.J.) winning #4 singles 6-4, 6-1 and Adam Petrovic (Hasbrouk Heights, N.J.) claiming #6 singles 6-2, 6-0.
Down 4-2 heading into doubles play, Endicott came up just short of sweeping the doubles competitions by winning #1 and #3 before dropping #2 doubles. Kirkpatrick teamed up with junior Michael Dolph (Stratford, Conn.) at #1 doubles to grab an 8-3 win over Khodakov and Bevilaqua while the #3 doubles team of Pierce and Justin Warshavsky (East Hartford, Conn.) took down Friedman and Petrovics 8-4. The #2 doubles team of McAndrews and Mike Lauretano (Winchester, Mass.) fell 8-3 to the team of Feygin and Abelev.
With the setback, Endicott falls to 3-3 overall on the 2014-15 campaign, and 2-1 in the Spring TennisFest tournament. The Gulls will take on Fairmont St., a NCAA Division II school that is 2-1 on the season, at 6:00 p.m. Thursday to wrap up their spring break trip.
