POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The Marist men's tennis team defeated Monmouth in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) match-up on Monday, 4-3. With the win, the Red Foxes earned the program's sixth straight MAAC Regular Season Championship and fifth straight undefeated conference season. Marist also clinched the No. 1 seed for the MAAC Tournament, held April 26-27 in West Windsor, N.J.
The Red Foxes are 13-4 overall and finished the year 7-0 in the MAAC, extending their conference winning streak to 31 matches. With today's win, Marist improves to a record-setting 119-6 mark in MAAC play under head coach Tim Smith.
"A very exciting match with the right result,” said Smith. “Everyone battled and it is sweet to have another regular season title, our sixth in a row. It is especially gratifying because now we will get a No. 1 seed, which should be advantageous to enhancing our opportunities in the MAAC Championship. I do think we could have played better in the doubles, because with this team a point in doubles puts us in a much better situation because we only need to win three singles. This is one of those situation that we savored the moment and won the battle. I do want to thank my coaches for their help and our teammates that were very encouraging to all the guys playing."
Victor Pugliese of Monmouth claimed the first singles match over senior Lorenzo Rossi (Lugano, Switzerland) 6-0, 6-4. Senior Dalen Klassen (St. Louis, Mo.) topped Prezemyslaw Filipek in an intense second singles match, 7-6 (3), 6-4. Senior Will Reznek (Toronto, Canada) cruised by Bee Kumthonkittikul, 6-1, 6-3.
Junior Joseph Dube (Livonia, Mich.) clinched the victory for the Red Foxes at fourth singles, outlasting Freddy Marcinkowski, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-2. Sophomore Trym Nagelstad (Oslo, Norway) fell to Luke Adamus in three sets, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Sophomore Fredrik Bjerke (Oslo, Norway) took down Christian Vieira in three sets, 7-5, 1-6, 6-1.
Monmouth won the doubles point to kick off the match, winning two of three hard-fought matches against the Red Foxes. Rossi and Reznek were edged by Pugliese and Vieira, 8-6. Klassen and Nagelstad were victorious against Marcinkowski and Ramy Bekhret, 8-5. Junior Matteo Giudici (Parma, Italy) and freshman Dylan Fletcher (Stow, Mass.) fell to Filipek and Kumthonkittikul, 8-6
The Red Foxes' match scheduled for Tuesday, April 12 against Army has been postponed.
