POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – The Rider University men's tennis team earned a split of six singles matches, but Marist swept the doubles point to take the match, 4-3, Friday afternoon. With the loss, the Broncs fall to 7-11 (3-1 MAAC), while the Red Foxes are now 2-13 (2-1 MAAC).
The Red Foxes began the match with three wins in the doubles matches. The closest the Broncs came to a win was a 6-4 setback from
Jake Grimes (Atlanta, GA/Johnson Ferry Christian Academy) and
Stavros Hadjivarnava (Moutagiaka, Cyrus/British College of Gava) to Tomas Gomez and Alex Thompson at No. 3
The Broncs earned singles wins at Nos. 3, 4 and 6.
Roger Martinez (Girona, Spain/Saint George's School) defeated Gomez, 7-5, 6-2, at No. 3, while Hadjivarnava got past Nick Suhanitski, 6-4, 7-5, at No. 4. Grimes also pulled out a 3-6, 6-4, 10-5, victory over Moritz Daxboeck at No. 6. But the Red Foxes took the remaining three singles flights and the match.
Nathan Slattery (Nenagh, Ireland) and
Dhruv Tangri (Punjab, India/Cambridge International School) both lost their matches at Nos. 1 and 2 in three sets. Slattery fell to Dylan Friedman, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, while Tangri was defeated by Christian Mills, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.
"Flat in doubles," said Rider Head Coach
Tom Battaglia. "That was the match for us. We got the split in singles, but we left the point on the table. Going to make some adjustments this week and be ready to roll next week. Siena and Niagara will be very tough to close out our conference schedule, so we need to be ready."
The Broncs return to action tomorrow, when they play host to non-conference foe Fordham. First serve is scheduled for noon.
