With the Patriot League Tournament on the horizon, the Colgate Men’s Tennis team closed their regular season with duels against Bucknell and Boston University. Both games took place at Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse, New York, the Bucknell duel on Friday, April 12 and the Boston University duel on Sunday, April 14.

The Friday match against Bucknell proved to be a small sample of the Raiders’ season at large—filled with bad luck. Bucknell won the team doubles point behind 6-2, 6-2 and 6-0 scores. Seniors Noah Rosenblat and Alec Dardis gave the game all they could, representing the Raiders well on Senior Night. Rosenblat won number two singles in straight sets of 6-4 and 6-3 for the Raiders’ first point of the day. Dardis then won number four singles in straight sets of 6-1 and 6-4 for the Raiders’ second team point of the day. This, however, would be the Raiders’ last point of the day, with first-year Rohan Gupta and junior Kun Tan taking their matches to the maximum number of sets, but ultimately being unable to close. Sophomore Scott Bickel was one number one single game away from winning his second set and the match, but was unable to finish.

“We have been so blessed and fortunate to have five straight seasons with really great records, where we won a ton of 4-3 decisions. Our luck simply ran out this year due to a combination of sickness and injuries, a tough schedule, weather etc,” Head Mens and Women’s Tennis Coach Bobby Pennington said. “Bucknell wanted it badly, as this is the first time since 2013 that they have beat us in the regular season. It was a tale of three matches in one. We played atrocious in doubles, dropping the point quickly. Our senior captains Rosenblat and Dardis get game balls for both winning in straight sets for us to go up 2-1. Hartman lost a tough two sets and the whole match came down to Gupta and Tan in their third sets and they both came up short. Credit to Bickel, as he looked great at No.1. We have to regroup and figure things out.”