Men's Tennis wins PL 2005 season crown
The AU Men's Tennis team (13-3, 5-0 Patriot League) upset No. 67 Army and beat Colgate on the road as it clinched home-court advantage in the PL championships for the fourth consecutive year.
Eagle junior Sebastien Proisy survived a three-set battle (6-3, 4-6, 6-3) in what proved to be the deciding match in Saturday's narrow 4-3 decision over the Black Knights (16-4, 3-1).
The Eagles started from behind after losing doubles play, but their top three of senior Juan Jaysingh and juniors Juancarlo Vazquez and Nicolas Frayssinoux swept their singles matches, enabling Proisy to clinch the match-deciding point.
AU had more breathing room Sunday in a 5-2 win over Colgate (8-15, 3-2). The Eagles got the doubles point before the bottom three seeds, Proisy, sophomore Jeff Schnell and freshman Mark Doumba swept their sets for the win.
The team returns home Tuesday for a match against Howard.
Women's Tennis suffers winless weekend
Women's Tennis (1-16, 0-5 Patriot League) ended PL play Sunday without a win after a 5-2 loss to Colgate that capped an 0-3 weekend.
The Eagles also couldn't win a set earlier in the weekend in 7-0 losses to George Washington and Big East-leading Syracuse.
The loss to the Raiders (8-9, 2-2) officially marked the end of the worst PL season ever for AU, which will not qualify for the conference tournament it had won twice in three seasons.
AU returns to action with a home match against Howard on Tuesday.
Women's Lacrosse loses its first PL game
The AU Women's Lacrosse team fell out of first place Saturday as it lost its first Patriot League match of the season at Holy Cross, 12-9.
Holy Cross, which controlled the ground-ball battle by a 2-1 margin, had a 5-1 run spanning both halves to stay ahead of AU.
Junior midfielder Morial Linnell scored two goals and had an assist to lead the Eagles (5-7, 3-1 PL), who had won their four previous matches against the Crusaders.
AU trailed 6-4 at the break but scored early in the second half to cut the deficit to 1. The Crusaders (8-5, 4-1) then extended their lead, rattling off three unanswered goals. They kept the Eagles at least a pair of goals behind the rest of the game.
The Eagles have been third-best in the league in draw control this season, but they lost that battle Saturday. They managed to win only 12 draws to Holy Cross' 21.
AU returns home Tuesday for a bout with No. 12 Johns Hopkins (7-3).
Emrani highlights AU at Duke invite meet
Sophomore Dustin Emrani ran to one of the top five times in AU history in placing third in the 800-meter run to lead the Eagles Saturday at the Duke Invitational in Durham, N.C.
Emrani crossed the finish line at 1:50.89, the program's fourth fastest time and just a fraction of a second behind his personal best, which he achieved two weeks ago at the Navy Invitational.
Senior Sean Duffy and Junior Phil Gaeta finished within two seconds of Emrani for eighth and ninth places, respectively.
Junior Zaia Wharton was the top performer for the women as she moved into second place all-time at AU in the 800-meter run, finishing in 2:10.94. Still, it was only good enough for 12th place in the field of 39.
In the Eagles' only long-distance event, Brendan Fennell finished 16th in the 3,000-meter run, but his time of 8:32.95 was good enough to be AU's fourth-best time ever.
