PURCHASE, NY – For the first time in two years, the Panther men's tennis team laced up the sneakers to play host at the Purchase College home courts. 

Despite a valiant effort, Purchase (0-2) dropped the non-conference match, 9-0, to the visiting Bearcats of Baruch College. 

Baruch (2-1) swept doubles play to jump out to an early 3-0 lead. Jim Bauer and Hudson Kaylie broke the scoring ice with an 8-0 shutout at second doubles. At the top spot, Abhinav Srivastava and Nicholas Santiago were next in line to finish, followed by Phil Dwan and Piers Seidmanwith at third doubles—both victorious by identical 8-2 scores. 

In singles action, Kaylie posted a 6-1, 6-0 win at the No. 4 spot to stretch the visitors' advantage to 4-0. Bauer tallied the deciding point and secured the win for Baruch with a 6-0, 6-0 sweep at second singles.  

Baruch went on to record wins at fifth, sixth and third singles, respectively. At the No. 1 spot, Purchase's Julian Szuper (SR/New York, NY) battled Srivastava into a third set tiebreaker. After dropping the first set 7-5, Szuper rallied to take set two by a score of 6-4. Despite a notable performance from the Panther newcomer, Szuper would take the loss in the tiebreaker, 12-10. 

The Panthers look to rebound on Thursday (Mar. 24) when the team heads to Mahwah, NJ for a non-conference match against Ramapo College.