The Baruch College Bearcats men’s tennis team kicked off its first game of the season, since the incomplete 2020 season, with a 5-4 win versus the Yeshiva University Maccabees on March 6 at the Fairfield Racquet Club.

The Maccabees started off hot, winning two out of the three doubles matches to bring them to a 2-1 lead.

In the No. 1 Doubles match, the Bearcats’ Abhinav Srivastava and Christopher Tham handily defeated the Maccabees’ Tomer Mendler and Eitan Jeselsohn 8-1.

However, it was the No. 2 and No. 3 Doubles matches that spelled initial trouble for Baruch.

Nicholas Santiago and Piers Seidman lost to Aaron Cohen and Eli Hanuka 8-4 in the No. 2 match, while Ali Elsamahi and Philip Dwan lost 8-7 to Jacobo Sion and Anthony Lallouz in the No. 3 match following a 7-4 tiebreaker loss.

Despite these initial losses, the Bearcats clawed back in the singles matches by a 4-2 margin to snag the victory from the Maccabees.

The Maccabees’ wins in the singles matches came in matches No. 1 and No. 6. Srivastava and Mendler faced off in the No. 1 Singles match, with Mendler winning two sets, 6-4 and 7-5. In the No. 6 match, Seidman lost two sets to Akiva Ackerman, both 6-1.

The rest of the singles matches went to the Bearcats.

In the No. 2 Singles match, Tham beat Cohen in two sets, winning the first 6-0 and the second 6- 4.

As for the No. 3 Singles match, Jim Bauer beat Lallouz in two sets, winning the first 6-3 and the second 7-5.

The No. 4 Singles match featured a blowout by the Bearcats, as Santiago easily defeated Jeselsohn 6-0 in each of their two sets.

The No. 5 Singles match saw Hudson Kaylie defeat Jonathan Mayer 6-1 in the first set and 7-5 in the second set.

The Bearcats are now 1-0 on the season and 3-5 against the Maccabees since 2011. The team’s next games will come on March 15 against New Jersey City University, March 22 against Purchase College and March 24 against York College.

The Bearcats enter the season as defending CUNY Athletic Conference champions. The team has won the past three CUNYAC championships, from 2017-19.