Sept. 19, 2004

ITHACA, NY - Marist freshman Leonardo Rodriguez won the backdraw A flight singles final at the Cornell Invitational in his first collegiate tennis tournament. It was an all-Marist final, as Rodriguez defeated teammate, sophomore Pedro Genovese. After dropping the first set to Genovese, 4-6, Rodriguez came back to take the second 7-6, winning the tiebreak 7-4. In the third set/super tiebreak, Rodriguez came out on top, 10-8.

En route to the final matchup, Rodriguez handily defeated UConn's Brian Ravensloot, 6-1, 6-1 yesterday while Genovese downed Tal Meir of Stonybrook, 6-4, 6-4.

In the semifinals of the C flight backdraw, Marist sophomore Frank Algier fell to Middlebury's Justin Ingoglia, 6-2. Algier reached the semifinals after downing UMBC's Jacobson 6-2, 6-4.

After facing each other in the singles final, Rodriguez and Genovese teamed up for the doubles final in which they fell to Cornell's Brett McKeon and Ray Wu, 8-5. Yesterday, Marist's dynamic duo defeated UMBC's Kruks and Ferrara, 8-6 and were seeded number one in today's semifinals, receiving a walkover into the final match.

The men's tennis team will be in action again next weekend when it travels to Providence, RI for the Brown Classic.