Men's College Tennis
Siena College 6, Rider University 1
LAWRENCEVILLE?They weren't fit to be tied, it just seemed that way. The Rider men's tennis team lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match to Siena on Saturday morning with the Saints winning three out of four tiebreakers. “It was a close match,” said head coach Ed Torres. “Much closer than the team scores indicated.”
For Rider (2-5, 0-2 MAAC), sophomore Marc Ashed (Vineland) won at fourth singles 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 10-7. “Marc lost the first set on a disputed call and came back strong in the second set and the tiebreaker,” said Torres. ?He has really been playing well in the last few matches. It's hard but I told him to forget about the disputed call and concentrate on the next set and he was able to do that.
“I was able to take the positives out of the first-set and move into the second set and not let the call affect me,” said Ashed. “I knew I was out playing him [Siena's Jay Godbole] and I knew it should not have come down to one call.”
“It definitely wasn't a 6-1 match,” said Ashed. “I think everyone feels that way. It is disheartening because this was our first real conference test to see where we are as a team and to lose 6-1 is disappointing. It was good for me to win my match but that's not the main objective. The team score is the main objective and we didn't come through.”
“Not winning the doubles point really put us behind,” said Torres. “It could have been a 4-3 match very easily. Sophomore Will Haight (Turnersville/Washington Township) lost in a tiebreaker after having a match point opportunity so that one kind of got away. It was just one of those matches and we always play Siena close.” Haight fell at third singles 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 10-6 to Siena's Stefan Putyera.
The Saints defeated Rider 4-3 last season.
“Siena was able to use their experience to win the tiebreakers,” Ashed added. “Tiebreakers can go either way. Siena has been there before and they have been in the middle of the conference and we are still trying to get that experience to find our way. Once we gain that experience we have the opportunity to be a very strong team.”
“It's hard having to win four out of five singles to get the team win,” Torres added. “Again and again, it is the doubles point and that's hard to do. 90 percent of the time, especially with evenly matched teams, the team that wins at doubles takes the match.”
The Broncs travel to Monmouth on Tuesday for a non-conference match at 2:30pm.
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