Feb. 6, 2009

Final Stats

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The Marist men's tennis suffered their first dual meet loss of the season, 6-1 at Brown on Friday night. Freshman Matt Himmelsbach (Longmeadow, Mass.) got the lone victory for the Red Foxes at sixth singles. With the loss the Red Foxes fell to 3-1 overall.

Himmelsbach defeated Charlie Posner, 6-3, 7-5 to get the victory in straight sets. With the score tied at five in the second set, Himmelsbach held his serve to earn a 6-5 advantage in the match. He would then break Posner's serve to win the set and match. With the win, Himmelsbach snapped a two match losing streak.

At second singles, junior Nicolas Pisecky (Lausanne, Switzerland) also won the second set in a tiebreak, but fell in the first and third sets to Nathaniel Gorham, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 6-2. The final singles match that went three sets was sophomore Marcus von Nordheim (Munich, Germany). Von Nordheim fell to Sam Garland, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Head coach Tim Smith said he was very impressed with the way the team played against top-notch competition.

"I was very impressed with the way we played," he said. "When you play a top-40 team and win one singles match and have three others go three sets you have to be pleased."

Marist will return to action on Feb. 21 when they face a second Ivy League foe in Dartmouth on the road. The match will begin at 6 p.m.