ITHACA, N.Y. –
Bryce Burnham and
Abraham Yohannes each won in both singles and doubles play, as they helped lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's tennis team to a 7-2 victory over the Ithaca Bombers at Glazer Arena Sunday afternoon in their regular season finale.
The win improved the Engineers to 10-6 overall on the season and 6-2 in conference play. The win also clinched the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Liberty League Championships being held next weekend, April 28-30 at the Reis Tennis Center at Cornell University in Ithaca.
RPI took two of the three doubles matches, as Yohannes paired with
Igor Visnevskij for an 8-2 win at No. 2 doubles. After Ithaca tied up the match with a win at No. 1 doubles, Burnham matched up with
Max Safanov for an 8-6 win at No. 3 doubles to send the Engineers to a 2-1 lead into singles play.
The Engineers clinched the match with three straight wins to open singles play – with Yohannes taking home the fifth and clinching point with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 3 singles. Both Aidan Drover-Mattinen and
Andy Zhu were each victorious ahead of that, as Drover-Mattinen won 6-4, 6-0 at No. 1 singles while Zhu won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 singles.
Burnham edged out a closely contested 6-7, 6-3, 10-6 win at No. 4 singles, while
Tasmay Shah rounded out the RPI wins with a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles.
The No. 4 seeded Engineers will return to action on Friday, April 28 in the Liberty League Quarterfinals. RPI will face the No. 5 seed, Union at 2:15 p.m. The winner of the match will advance to Saturday's semifinal round against top-seeded Skidmore.
