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Binghamton U. M/W tennis matches
If you haven't been to the new Events Center on BU's campus, you are missing out. The Event Center is a state of the art facility complete with spacious seating, the Bearcat Cafe and a wonderful atmosphere. An impressive scoreboard, railside viewing and entertainment (of which I include the student section wing) add to the ambiance. The basketball is pretty good too.
If you havent been to a Binghamton University tennis match, you are also missing out. Both the men's and women's teams have upcoming matches at the Binghamton Tennis Center. The men play Saturday, March 6 at 5pm against Manhattan College while the women compete Sunday, March 21 8am-12 against Seton Hall.
Both teams have colorful marquee international players at the top of their lineup. Dan Hanegby, is a 24 year old freshman from Herliza Israel. Dan was ranked #1 in the country in Israel juniors and just defeated Colgate's #1 player, who is ranked # 9 in our region. Dan spent 3 years in the special defense force of the Israeli Army, wher he did not get a chance to play tennis.
Melis Altinay is a freshman from Antalya, Turkey. Ranked top 5 in the juniors in Turkey, Zeyneb also recently defeated Colgate's # 1 player, chalking up a good win and serving notice that she is a force to be reckoned with.
To watch a college match is an exciting and different experience. They play three 8 game doubles matches and six singles matches. The doubles is played first and the team that wins two or three of the doubles matches gets 1 point, referred to as the doubles point. The singles follows. One can and usually does play both singles and doubles. College tennis plays out let serves. One is only allowed 20 seconds in betweeen points. Coaching is allowed. The team atmosphere and spirit is evident the entire match. Our bleachers on court 5 provide intimate up close viewing for cts 3-6, while the lounge provides great viewing for courts 1 & 2. Six matches going on at one time gives the spectator lots of choices, and keeps the coach on his/her toes.
While our matches provide entertainment for anyone interested in watching tennis, I think they are particularly beneficial for juniors. They can witness first hand the intensity, energy and level of play that Division 1 tennis contains. I hope you can make it up to root on our Bearcats. You won't regret making the effort.
Posted by mstarke at February 23, 2004 01:41 PM