Bucknell University Athletics
Patriot League Trio Descends on Bucknell Men's Tennis to Start Homestand
4/9/2013 8:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 9, 2013
LEWISBURG, Pa. - With a season that stretches over the better part of nine months, Bucknell men's tennis is finally heading down the homestretch with a trio of Patriot League matches this weekend and all of them will take place at home. The Bison (11-6, 1-1 PL) will start off by hosting Lehigh at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, followed by Army at 3 p.m. on Friday and Lafayette at 2 p.m. on Sunday. All three matches will take place at the Varsity Tennis Courts. Friday's match with the Black Knights will be preceded by Senior Day.
Bucknell won two of its three matches last week with the last one, coming at Binghamton on Sunday, ending more than one streak. The loss to the Bearcats snapped a four-match team winning streak and also ended Kelly Morque's individual four-match winning streak in singles. The senior nearly had it to five straight victories but fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 at Binghamton. Morque is 6-6 on the year, and 3-5 in duals, in matches that go to three sets or super tie breaks. That is tied with Evan Zimmer for the most three-set matches on the team.
With Morque's loss, Zimmer now has the longest active singles winning streak at four. It is the senior's longest streak of the season.
One streak that survived Binghamton was Nick Bybel and Josh Katten's in doubles. The duo returned to the No. 1 spot in the lineup and was rewarded with an 8-6 decision and its third consecutive victory. Katten went a combined 4-2 in singles and doubles last week, improving his career record to 149-92. That puts him just one win away from tying the all-time record, currently held by Ryan Sandburg (150-113). Although right on the cusp of the combined wins record, Katten still has some work to take the top spot on the singles and doubles lists individually. The current senior needs seven more wins in singles to match Ira Riebiesen (76-54) and seven more in doubles to equal Sandburg (87-50).
Included in Katten's 69-50 career singles record is a mark of 16-11 during the current campaign. That ranks him third on the squad behind Zimmer (19-12) and Bybel (18-8). The last time at least two Bison reached 20 singles wins in the same season was 2008-09. Mark Malloy finished that season with a record of 23-8, while Daniel Bednarek was 22-10.
With the success of seniors Katten, Morque and Zimmer, one player to fly under the radar for much of the season has been Aidan Lynch. Lynch recently began playing doubles with Zimmer, with whom he is now 4-0 on the year. The junior's fall tournament campaign began with four consecutive wins and a title at the Bucknell Quad while playing with Morque, but it ended with five straight losses. Since then, Lynch is 11-4 in duals matches and has not lost in back-to-back outings this spring.
Bucknell will face two of the top teams in the Patriot League this week, starting with Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks bring a 14-4 record overall and a 3-1 mark in league play to Lewisburg. They have won four of their last five with the only loss during that stretch coming 5-2 at Army.
The series between Bucknell and Lehigh, which began in 1921, is currently knotted up at 38-38. The 2012 meeting between the two squads went the way of the Mountain Hawks by a score of 5-2. That snapped an eight-match winning streak against Lehigh. In addition to Gregory Maxson's win that was the only point in singles play, the Bison also snagged victories at second and third doubles. Katten and Zimmer teamed up for an 8-1 decision over Mark Goldberg and Mitchell Petersen, giving the Bison an undefeated record in Patriot League play for the year.
Army also enters its meeting with Bucknell with 14 wins. The Black Knights are 14-5 overall and 4-0 in the Patriot League this season and are riding a six-match winning streak. Most recently they won a 4-3 nailbiter against Navy.
Bucknell is looking for its first win against Army since 1974. The Black Knights have an all-time 26-3 lead in the series. A year ago, they won 5-2 in the regular season. Despite the lopsided team score, doubles action could hardly have been much closer. Cohenca and Lynch won at No. 1 doubles, 9-8 (5), and Zimmer and Katten were 9-7 winners at the No. 2 position, while Scott Bernstein and Morque fell 8-6 at No. 3.
The busy week will wrap up with Lafayette on Sunday. The Leopards enter the week at 5-8 overall and 1-3 in the league but will face Saint Joseph's and Navy before making the trip to Lewisburg. Lafayette's lone Patriot League victory came 6-1 against Holy Cross, while it was swept in each of its other three matches against Colgate, Army and Lehigh.
Bucknell has won 10 straight against Lafayette, improving its record in the series to 45-20. The Bison won 6-1 last spring, sweeping doubles play. The only loss came in a three-set match as Andrew Morris defeated Jonathan DeFrancesch 1-6, 7-6, 6-2.
While these teams face off every year, they are even more familiar with each other this season as Bucknell met each of them once during fall tournament play. The Bison, Leopards and Black Knights all competed at the Saint Joseph's Invitational, while the Mountain Hawks hosted Bucknell at the Lehigh Invite. Bucknell went a combined 4-4 vs. Lehigh, 2-2 vs. Army and 2-1 vs. Lafayette in tournament action.
After the trio of matches this week, Bucknell has just three more guaranteed bouts this spring. The Bison will host Robert Morris on April 17 before heading to the Patriot League Tournament in Hamilton, N.Y., April 19-21. The season will wrap up with a dual match against Bloomsburg on April 24 at the Varsity Tennis Courts.
