POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – The Marist men's tennis team picked up a tight but decisive 6-1 victory over the Fairfield Stags Friday afternoon in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play. The win improves the Red Foxes to 5-4 overall and 3-1 in MAAC play. The loss drops Fairfield to 5-9 overall and 2-1 in the MAAC.

"The 6-1 result was not necessarily indicative of the play, I think the doubles point helped give us momentum heading into the singles," said head coach Tim Smith. "I have mentioned to the players that to be competitive and win in the MAAC, we really need to win the doubles point."

The Red Foxes did just that with a 6-0 win at third doubles and then a tight 6-3 win by Rudolf Kurz and Gianlucca Massa at the first positon. Fairfield was able to win at the second doubles spot, but not before Marist clinched the opening point.

Marist kept it going in singles, winning at all of the singles positions except the sixth. Javier Restrepo had a solid straight set victory over Tyler Shibles, 6-1, 6-4 from the first position. Rudolf Kurz battled to a 7-5 victory in his first set before cruising to a 6-1 win in the second.

Gianlucca Massa picked up a straight set 6-3, 6-0 win at the third spot and Christopher Gladden ripped off a dominant stretch of play after dropping the first three games before winning the next 11 games in a row and closing out the second set 6-1.

The Red Foxes' final singles win came from the fourth spot and Lars Schouten, who won a very close first set 7-6 after trailing 6-5 before closing out Anthony Caputo 6-3 in the second set.

"Kudos go out to Javier and Chris for their doubles play," said Smith. "Today's win is in part to the extra practice they've been putting in and I think that made a difference in today's match."

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The Red Foxes will honor their seniors Saturday afternoon before their 2 p.m. match against the Niagara Purple Eagles and then travel to Siena on Sunday in another pivotal MAAC match.