ROCHESTER, NY – The Nazareth men's tennis team came up short on Saturday in the Empire 8 Championship Match, falling 5-1 to No. 2 Oswego. Nazareth was the top seed in the west division and Oswego the 2 seed.
Griffin Bond was honored with the Empire 8 Torchbearer Award. The Empire 8 Torchbearer is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average (GPA) participating in the championship game for each E8 sport. To be eligible for the Empire 8 Torchbearer Award, a student-athlete must be a junior, or senior and in at least their second season of competition with their current team.
Nazareth is now 12-8 overall, while Oswego moves to 11-3.
Although leading near the midway point for all three doubles matches, Nazareth faltered at first and third.
Max Funiciello and
Griffin Bond jumped out to a 4-0 lead at first doubles and led 5-4. Trailing 6-5, they battled back to even the score at 6 before the Lakers took the final two games. In third doubles,
David Tuller and
Pierre Ntonga gave the Golden Flyers a 5-4 lead, before falling in the next four games to fall 8-5.
Nazareth's lone point in doubles came from
Chris Benedict and
Noah Britton who won 8-5.
In singles, Bond fell by a 6-4, 6-4 decision. After falling 6-2 in the first set, Funiciello battled to win the second set 6-4 before falling 6-0 in the third.
The deciding match came as Austin Davis defeated Ntonga at third singles, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
