Bears Take 6th at HVMAC Tennis Championships; Bhatti Named All-Conference

FLUSHING, NY - The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's tennis team finished in sixth place at the season-ending Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference Tennis Championships held at the US National Tennis Center on Saturday afternoon.

Senior Muhammad Ali Bhatti (Brooklyn, NY/James Madison) produced the lone win for the Bears defeating Michael Cheng of Webb in the quarterfinals on the #1 singles tournament, 8-5.  Bhatti lost in the next round to Anthony Assal of Cooper Union, the eventual overall singles champion winning for the second straight season.  After the tournament, Bhatti was named to the HVMAC All-Conference Team for the fourth time in his career.

Senior Danny Contant (Staten Island, NY/Xaverian) fell in his opening round match in the #6 singles tournament to Schuyler Needham, 8-4. Contant teamed up with Mohamed El Amri (Tangier, Morocco/American School of Tangier) at #3 doubles nearly securing a victory, edged out 8-6 in the quarterfinals by the duo of Rachel Walker and Chris Licato, who eventually advanced to the finals.

Cooper Union captured the team title for the third straight year, winning seven of the nine singles and doubles flight championships. Regular season champions Culinary Institute of America took home tournament runner-up honors for the second straight year.

St. Joseph's (0-10) will wrap up their 2012 campaign in a rematch with Webb Institute at a date and location to be announced later.