Men’s Tennis Concludes Regular Season; Three Advance Into NEAC’s

Sophomore Justin Fries, above, and brothers Kyle and Dan Stephens earned berths in the NEAC postseason tennis tournament, which runs Saturday and Sunday (photo courtesy of Ed Webber, Keuka College Sports Information Department).

The Keuka College men’s tennis team wrapped up the 2012 regular season with three North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) matches and a non-conference clash with Elmira College, and the Storm dropped all four contests.

Keuka suffered a 9-0 home shutout to Elmira College on Wednesday, losing five of six singles matches in straight sets and being swept in the three doubles matches. Junior Dan Stephens (Odessa, NY/Odessa-Montour) won the first set of his third singles match with Sam Pine by a 7-6 (9-7) score before dropping the second 6-2 and the tiebreak 10-5.

Hosting NEAC rival Lancaster Bible College on a picture-perfect Friday afternoon, the Storm fell to the Chargers 7-2. Stephens posted a 6-3, 7-6 (10-8) victory over Brandon Cutler at fourth singles, and sophomore Justin Fries (Marion, NY/Marion) and senior Kyle Stephens (Odessa, NY/Odessa-Montour) defeated Alex Ko and Grant Noel 8-5 at first doubles for Keuka’s only two points of the match.

The Green and Gold hit the road on Saturday and Sunday for a pair of tough NEAC clashes, and Keuka suffered an 8-1 loss at Penn State-Berks on Saturday and a 9-0 loss to Penn State-Harrisburg on Sunday.

Against Berks, seven of the nine matches were sweeps by the Nittany Lions. Dan Stephens posted a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 win over Bradley Kale at third singles, and Fries had a close match at first singles. Facing Matt Holdorf, Fries won the first set 7-6 (7-2) but lost the second set 6-0 and the decisive third set 10-2.

Closing out the regular-season against Harrisburg, Keuka (1-7, 0-4 NEAC) suffered straight-set losses at all six singles events and all three doubles contests.

While the Storm didn’t qualify for this weekend’s NEAC team championships, several individual members earned spots in the tournament, which runs Saturday and Sunday at the Birchwood Tennis Club in Clarks Summit, PA.

Dan Stephens earned the No. 4 seed in the third singles draw while brother Kyle Stephens and Justin Fries earned the No. 4 seed in the first doubles draw.

The No. 1 and No. 4 players/teams will square off in one semifinal, with the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds squaring off in the other semifinal.

The winners of each match will play for the conference championship, with the winner earning first-team All-NEAC and the runner-up earning second-team All-NEAC. The winner of the third-place match earns third-team All-NEAC.