VESTAL, N.Y. - Touting a roster with four seniors and seven upperclassmen, Binghamton men's tennis opens its busy 22-match spring season with an eye on positioning the team for a postseason run. 

Fifth-year head coach Nick Zieziula and his squad begin play with two road matches this weekend - at Quinnipiac (Sat.) and at Brown (Sun.). After the tournament-driven fall slate, the Bearcats will now turn their focus to dual matches, where BU will face a challenging blend of Ivy League and regional rivals before beginning the grueling test of Mid-American Conference (MAC) play.

The Bearcats had a solid fall showing with several notable individual performances, including senior No. 1 Ludovico Cestarollo's runnerup showing at the MAC Indoor Championship. Cestarollo is currently ranked No. 606 in the world in ATP doubles after a great showing at the summer ATP Challenger. He then went 10-3 in the fall and is poised to duplicate his first team All-MAC honors from 2017 as he concludes a stellar collegiate career in green. 

"Ludo has continued to take big steps forward in his game each month," Zieziula said. "His summer success, which built off of his disciplined summer training schedule, bled over into his confidence in fall events with solid performances in all of his tournaments. Ludo is poised for a great run in his last semester."

Junior Kushaan Nath is coming off a 2017-18 year that concluded with second team All-MAC honors. Senior Valentin Bouchet has compiled 55 career singles wins and will be a steady contributor in the middle of the lineup. Junior Tiago Lourenco captured the No. 5 singles flight at the fall MAC event and went 6-1 in his final two fall competitions. Freshman Dylan Friedman showed his promise with three wins at the ITA Regional. The 6-foot-6 newcomer won six matches in the fall before injuries slowed his progress.

"Kushaan improved on his serve through the summer and fall and it is showing in his matches," Zieziula said. "With more free points on the service games he could be one of the best players in the region. Dylan had a great September and October working on attacking more from the baseline. A little injury slowed him down late in the semester but he's past that and excited to get started.

"The biggest thing that we saw this fall were some significant steps in our maturity as a group," Zieziula said. "The impact of having four seniors and three juniors really started to show up. There were some great individual performances on weekends but we didn't really put together a great weekend as a team yet. All the pieces are in place ... we just need to snap it all the way in.

While the singles lineup is taking shape, Zieziula is still eyeing the doubles tandems in hopes of strengthening BU's position.

"Doubles is still a question mark for us," he said. "We changed things up and stayed with the same teams almost the entire fall trying to build off the success that Tiago and Kushaan had together last year when they dominated at No. 1 in the MAC.  



One of the high-profile opponents on BU's spring slate is SEC member Clemson (Feb. 10 at West Point) and a Cornell (March 8) program that was among the nation's Top 25 a year ago. The Bearcats will play two indoor matches at the Binghamton Tennis Center and then host three key matches at the newly named Lane Tennis Center with postseason seeding on the line in early April.

"Last year we took the doubles point and three first sets against Clemson despite being down two starters," Zieziula said. "We are excited to get another crack at a program with such a rich tradition of success nationally. Cornell started this year receiving votes in the Top 25 and that will be a great test for the guys later in the season. Temple and Bryant both got our number last year on their home courts but this year will have to come to us in the friendly confines of BTC."

The MAC slate consists of seven matches with the teams jockeying for position when all six programs advance to the conference tournament, held April 19-20 in Kalamazoo, Mich. Binghamton will play Buffalo and Toledo twice and have single matches against reigning champion Western Michigan, Northern Illinois and Ball State. 

"Western Michigan is again the team to beat with the depth that they have," Zieziula said. "But the fall invite results were pretty even after that in the singles. As per the usual with this conference, every match is going to be tight and a few points will separate the top from the bottom. The regular season will be pivotal for trying to grab one of the top two spots and a bye into the semis." 

After finishing fifth in each of the last two seasons in the MAC, BU is hopeful to bounce back to the form of 2016, when the team was second and reached the tournament semifinals. Binghamton's veteran-laden roster certainly has the talent and drive to orchestrate that rise.    

"Overall, the main thing that this group is focused on is just trying to take care of the little things day-to-day," Zieziula said. "We know we have great ability on our team. We need to stay focused and diligent day-to-day. We have four seniors who want to go out right with no regrets."