Stevens Falls To TCNJ; Naz Blanked by RIT
STEVENS v TCNJ
In a match-up between two regionally-ranked opponents, No. 19 The College of New Jersey narrowly edged the No. 17 Stevens Institute of Technology men's tennis team 5-4 on Wednesday in a back-and-forth battle.
The loss moves Stevens' record to 11-10 while TCNJ moved to 10-5.
TCNJ jumped-out to an early lead with an 8-2 win at first doubles for senior Howard Telson and sophomore Pierce Cooper over the freshman duo of
Charles Drake and
Michael Feldman. Stevens rebounded with an 8-5 win at No. 3 for sophomores
Ben Foran and
Tyler Tisdale, but TCNJ took the doubles edge with an 8-5 win at No. 2 for freshman Mike Stanley and sophomore Billy Buchbinder over sophomore
Matthew Heinrich and freshman
Antonio Perich.
The win at third doubles was the ninth of the year overall for Foran and Tisdale as they moved their record to 7-1 from that position.
The Ducks evened things up once the singles matches started with Feldman's straight-set win over sophomore Dan Presuto at No. 3, followed by a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 1 for Heinrich over Telson to give Stevens the 3-2 lead. The win for Heinrich was his team-leading seventeenth of the season, while Feldman's was his fourteenth which is good for second on the team.
TCNJ evened the score with a 6-2, 6-2 win at sixth singles for Buchbinder over freshman
Brett Derrington, but Stevens once against answered with Drake's 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 4 over senior Gabe Allen.
The Lions were able to recover though with a win for Cooper over Foran at No. 2, before Stanley clinched the win with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win for Stanley over Perich at No. 5.
NAZARETH v RIT
Host RIT dominated Nazareth in a non-conference men's tennis match Wednesday as the Tigers won all six singles matches en route to a 9-0 victory at the Gordon Field House.
Senior
Erik Manske and junior
Matt Jennings each lost in tiebreakers at first and sixth singles respectively. After dropping the first set to Amos Baptiste, Manske took the second set 6-3, then lost the tiebreaker 10-4. Similarly, Jenninigs dropped the first set to RIT's Jared Rapahel before winning the second set 7-5. He lost the tiebreaker 10-3.