History repeated itself on Sunday as the AU men's tennis team fell to Army in the finals of the Patriot League championship held in West Point, N.Y.
The Eagles had just pulled off a dominating victory against Navy on Saturday, defeating them 4-0 in the semi-finals.
Head Coach Kyle Bailey was determined to have his team go into the match with confidence.
"The big thing we were focusing on this weekend was to stick to game plan and make sure we stayed on them and make sure we didn't give them a chance to get back in the match. We wanted to stay focused and not play too emotional."
The Eagles were able to capture the doubles point when seniors Nicolas Frayssinoux and Juancarlo Vasquez defeated their opponents John Houghton and Carl Fisher (8-5). Likewise, junior Ben Weltman and freshmen Josh Levitz defeated Sean Harris and Kevin Harris (9-1).
The No. 2 team, juniors Sebastien Proisy and Andrew Singer were defeated by Eddie Kang and Michael Good (8-0).
The singles play began positively for the Eagles with Levitz dominating his opponent, Kevin Harris (6-1, 6-0).
Although the Eagles were ahead 2-0, they were unable to maintain their momentum, as the Black Knights initiated a significant comeback.
First to fall was Nicolas Frayssinoux, who was defeated in both of his sets (7-6, 6-1).
The Eagles lost the lead when the match was tied and Schnell was defeated by Good in straight sets (7-5, 6-3).
The Black Knights pulled ahead when Vasquez was defeated by Houghton after a long battle (2-6, 6-3, 6-1).
No. 4 Kang clinched the championship title for the Black Knights when he defeated Singer (2-6, 7-6, 6-4). As a result, Proisy's match against Freshman Phil Uhawi was left unfinished at (6-4, 2-6, 3-1).
"It was a heartbreaking loss," said Bailey. "Unfortunately, Army did not allow us to stick to our game plan. They played a little smarter in the end."
The Eagles finished their spring season with an overall record of 10-11, and a record of 5-1 in the PL conference.
The team is still adjusting to the fact that this was last match that the AU men's tennis team will ever play.
As a result, three or four players will be transferring to different schools so that they can continue their tennis careers beyond AU.
"Its still hard to wrap my head around the concept that this is the end," said Bailey. "I've been here as a player, an assistant, and a coach, and these guys have represented the program as well as anybody I have seen in the past eight years"
