POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK – The Marist men's tennis team earned their fourth straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference win Monday afternoon as they took down the Siena Saints in impressive fashion, triumphing 7-0 at the East Campus Tennis Pavilion.
Senior captain Matteo Giudici (Parma,Italy) teamed up with an unfamiliar partner in freshman Jan Dernic (Koper, Slovenia) to defeat the Saint's Alex Burbine and Joe Diorio, 8-2 while freshman Rudolf Kurz (Oberpullendorf, Austria) and sophomore Dylan Fletcher (Stow, Mass.) defeated the other Siena pairing, 8-4 to secure the double's point.
Junior Fredrik Bjerke (Oslo, Norway) and Joe Motta (Staten Island, N.Y.) also gutted out a back and forth match against Siena's Darren Reisch and Diego Lebron in the number one doubles position.
In singles play junior Julien Hochner (Nice, France) picked up the first single's win of the day for the Red Foxes in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. It would become a theme for Marist as Kurz, Giudici, Dernic, Motta, and Fletcher would pick up straight set victories against their Siena opponents as well.
“It's great having the depth that we do on this team, it allowed us to have major players miss a match due to class without skipping a beat,” said head coach Tim Smith. “Kudos to Julien for his singles play and Joe Motta for stepping up in the sixth singles position.”
With the win the Red Foxes improve to 11-6 overall and 4-0 in the MAAC with four conference games remaining including a showdown with Monmouth on the road up next on Wednesday, April 15 at 3 p.m.
Full Results
Doubles
1. Fredrik Bjerke/Joe Motta (MARM) def. Reisch, Darren/Lebron, Diego (SIE) 8-7
2. Rudolf Kurz/Dylan Fletcher (MARM) def. Funiciello, Matthew/Saglia, Alessandro (SIE) 8-4
3. Matteo Giudici/Jan Dernic (MARM) def. Burbine, Alex/Diorio, Joe (SIE) 8-2
Singles
1. Rudolf Kurz (MARM) def. Reisch, Darren (SIE) 6-1, 6-0
2. Matteo Giudici (MARM) def. Lebron, Diego (SIE) 6-0, 6-0
3. Jan Dernic (MARM) def. Funiciello, Matthew (SIE) 6-0, 6-2
4. Dylan Fletcher (MARM) def. Saglia, Alessandro (SIE) 7-5, 6-3
5. Julien Hochner (MARM) def. Diorio, Joe (SIE) 6-1, 6-1
6. Joe Motta (MARM) def. Galante, Peter (SIE) 6-0, 6-2
