EDWARDSVILLE, Pa. (April 30, 2019) - The FDU-Florham men's tennis team was topped by No. 1 seed Wilkes University 5-0 in Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom Semifinals Tuesday.
FDU drops to 14-9 on the year, while Wilkes improves to 13-6. The Colonels advanced to the MAC Freedom Championship, where they will face either No. 2 seed Manhattanville College or No. 3 seed DeSales University.
The Devils went down early, dropping all three doubles matches. Sophomore
Tyler Schacher and senior
Brendon Urbano fell 8-0 at the third flight, with rookie
JT Murray and junior
Chris Fiorenza getting knocked off 8-3 at the second flight.
The No. 1 doubles duo of senior
Rich Bennett and junior
Kevin Weller nearly pulled off an upset, falling in a heartbreak 8-7. Bennett and Weller gave their opponents, Courtney Murphy and Andrew MacDonald everything they could handle. It was only second time in a conference match this season a team had taken Murphy and MacDonald to an 8-7 result.
Bennett was bested by Murphy 6-0, 6-1 at the top of the singles lineup, with Weller falling 6-0, 6-0 to close out the match. At time of Wilkes hitting their fifth victory, the Colonels were leading in three of other four singles flights. Junior
Chris Fiorenza was winning at No. 5 singles, having claimed the first set 6-4. Fiorenza was leading 5-1 in second before play was halted.
FROM THE COURT
"Our guys probably played the best match of the season today," stated Head Coach
Tom Battaglia. "I know the score says otherwise but we were very close to winning a couple of matches today. It speaks volumes to their preparation leading up to today's match. They wanted to play their best and I couldn't be happier with today's result."
