Men's College Tennis
Fordham University 5, Rider University 2
BRONX, N.Y.?In any team sport, a nine game (or match) losing streak isn't the best thing to go through but you can sort of pass the blame around to yourself and your teammates. When you personally suffer through a nine match losing streak in an individual sport like tennis, the mirror tends to get a good work out as you start to question your game.
The Rider University men's tennis team lost a non-conference match at Fordham University Tuesday afternoon on Hawthorn-Rooney Courts but for junior Will Haight (Sewell/Washington Township), the ride home will be that much sweeter after scoring a three-set win at third singles 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 to break a nine match losing streak that dated back to last season.
“It feels good to win a singles match,” said Haight. “It's been since last October. It was a good win for me. The Fordham player is pretty good and I played well enough to beat him. If we would have had our full lineup, we probably would have done better as a team. With the players we had, we still did pretty well. As for myself, I'm feeling pretty good right now.”
Haight's last win came in a MAAC-match at Saint Peter's on October 27, 2007, 7-5, 7-5.
“I played more consistently,” Haight remembered about his win today. “I took advantage of my opponent's errors and hit some winners on key points. I got to the super tiebreaker and I had never won one of those before. I did remember some of the errors that I made in one last year so I used that experience to come out on top today. It definitely is a confidence booster for the rest of the season. When you go that long between wins, it starts to wear on you. Hopefully this win will give me the energy for the rest of the season.”
Also for the Broncs in the Bronx, senior Casey Jedlinski (Manalapan) won at first singles 6-1, 6-1 with sophomore Josh Rultenberg (Lafayette Hill, Pa./Plymouth-Whitemarsh) losing a tough three-setter at number two singles 2-6, 6-3, 7-10.
“The team played well considering we were missing two starters,” said head coach Ed Torres. “As a team, some of the players who don't see that much action got some very valuable experience against a pretty solid Fordham squad.”
Rider falls to 1-4 on the season. After starting the season 0-2, Fordham (3-2) has won three straight.
The match was originally scheduled for September 28 and was postponed due to rain.
The teams last met during the 2006-07 season with Fordham defeating the Broncs 7-0.
The Rider women's tennis team hosts Lafayette on October 8 at 3:00pm with the men back in action on Thursday, October 9 in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match against Saint Peter's.
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