Men's Tennis

Schedule/Results | Roster | News | Archives

April 25, 2009

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The St. Bonaventure men's tennis team advanced to Sunday's Atlantic 10 Championship match with a dramatic 4-3 win over top-seeded George Washington in the semifinals on Saturday at the Club 4 Life.

The Brown and White ended a two-match losing streak to GW in the A-10 Tournament in order to advance to their third-ever A-10 championship match. The Bonnies have made the most of their championship appearances, winning the title in 2001 and 2003.

Meeting St. Bonaventure in the championship match is second-seeded Xavier, who also advanced to the final with a dramatic 4-3 win over third-seeded Saint Louis. Sunday's match is slated to begin at 11 a.m. The Musketeers are the defending champions.

The Bonnies set the tone by picking up the doubles point. St. Bonaventure swept all three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead in the epic five-hour battle.

St. Bonaventure took a 3-0 lead by winning the opening two singles matches. Senior Leo Mochizuki picked up one of the points with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles against Chris Kushma. Sophomore Mikhail Sudakov gave up just one just one point in his dominating 6-0, 6-1 win over Alex Sohaili.

The Colonials stormed back into the match by taking the next three singles matches to knot the score at 3-3.

The deciding point came down to the No. 1 singles match between sophomore Chris Post and GW's Yan Levinski. Post took the first set 6-4 and then Levinski responded with a 6-4 win of his own to force the third and final set. Levinski built a 5-2 advantage in the third set, but Post heroically stormed back to a 7-6 (3) final set victory to give the Bonnies a chance to win their first A-10 Championship since 2003.

Semifinal Round
No. 4 St. Bonaventure 4, No. 1 George Washington 3
Doubles
1. Chris Post/Jon Luce (SBU) def. Ugur Atalay/Richard Blumenfield (GW) - 8-6
2. Leo Mochizuki/Victor Lecina (SBU) def. Chris Kushma/Yan Levinski (GW) - 9-8 (4)
3. Enric Larregola/Mikhail Sudakov (SBU) vs. Arya Vayghan/Erik Hannah (GW) - 8-5

Singles
1. Chris Post (SBU) def. Yan Levinski (GW) - 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (3)
2. Ugur Atalay (GW) def. Jon Luce (SBU) - 6-2, 6-7 (10), 6-3
3. Erik Hannah (GW) def. Diego Valdenegro (SBU) - 3-6, 6-4, 6-0
4. Leo Mochizuki (SBU) def. Chris Kushma (GW) - 6-4, 6-2
5. Mikhail Sudakov (SBU) def. Alex Sohaili (GW) - 6-0, 6-1
6. Arya Vayghan (GW) def. Victor Lecina (SBU) - 6-2, 6-1