LAWRENCEVILLE?Despite a win at first singles from junior Casey Jedlinski, the Broncs lost a non-conference match against Lafayette Friday afternoon. “I thought Casey played very well,” said head coach Ed Torres. “He was facing a former Middlesex County champion and kept the ball under control and was able to pull out the win.”
Jedlinski (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan), who posted a 10-4 record his freshman season, won his match in straight sets 6-2, 7-5 over Brett Kraft.
“A few years ago, Lafayette would have handled us easily,” Torres added. “By looking at the match scores, even though we lost as a team 6-1, each match was hard fought and a few points here and there, the matches could have gone the other way. We did pretty well starting three freshmen today.”
“It was a big match playing against Lafayette,” said Jedlinski who was surrounded by a fan club including one fan waving a ?Go Casey' sign in support of his efforts. “My first two matches this season were a little sloppy (6-0, 6-1 and 6-2, 6-0 losses) so I worked on staying positive today and rallied with the support of my teammates and students cheering me on. I tried my best and luckily I won.”
Also for Rider (1-2), sophomore Will Haight (Turnersville, N.J./Washington Township) lost a hard fought match at third singles falling 13-11 in the third set tiebreaker. Haight was able to rebound and along with sophomore Marc Ashed (Vineland, N.J./Vineland) won at second doubles 8-5.
“It was good for the younger players to be able to see Casey win,” Torres said. “It was high caliber tennis and when you have younger players, you need the upperclassmen to lead you and Casey did very well for us today.”
“I am really excited about the season so far,” Jedlinski added. “We have such a good team this year, we are more balanced and we have more depth and the freshmen that came in are solid and have bolstered the starting lineup. I am very optimistic about the season. The key today was that I tried to dig deep on every point and run every shot down. That extra effort paid off and I was able to win the match.”
The Broncs host Marist in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match Monday afternoon.
“The Marist match is going to be tough,” Torres said. “They are traditionally at the top of the conference and it will be a solid test for us. That is really the only way to get better, by playing the top teams and Marist is certainly on that list.”
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