SELINSGROVE, Pa.- The men's tennis team visited Susquehanna on Wednesday afternoon for a Landmark contest, ultimately falling 7-2.
The River Hawks swept the doubles matches to give themselves a strong advantage in the early going. The team of Ilia Buralkin (Moscow, Russia) and Utsav Dhir Deravariya (India / Sunway University) lost 4-8 in first doubles, while William Michelson (Old Mystic, Conn. / Stonington) and Seth Strawser (Richfield, Pa. / East Juniata) lost 1-8 in second doubles. Nate Whelan (Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. / Point Pleasant Beach) and Victor J.B. Jung (Normandy, France) fell 2-8 in the third doubles.
Juniata would see both of their points come in singles play. First singles saw an epic Buralkin win an epic duel, dropping the first set 63-77, before storming back to take a 6-1 victory in the second set and winning 10-1 in the third set tiebreaker. Michelson fell 0-6, 3-6 in second singles, while Robert Singer (Olney, Md. / Sherwood) lost 2-6, 0-6 in third singles. Strawser would then claim the Eagles other point of the day, winning 6-3, 6-3 in fourth singles. Whelan was beaten 3-6, 1-6 in fifth singles, and Deravariya lost in sixth singles with a score of 0-6, 4-6.
The result sees the Eagles drop to 11-5 overall and 0-3 in the Landmark. They'll now prepare for more conference action over the weekend, traveling to Moravian on Saturday before visiting Elizabethtown on Sunday. Both matches will begin at 1:00 PM.
