ONEONTA, N.Y. -- The Oneonta men's tennis team continued their hot start to the season with a 7-0 shutout win in their home opener against Alfred Saturday afternoon. Five Red Dragons won in doubles and singles play, while senior
William Schmid (Yonkers/Salesian HS) and junior
Chris Chippari (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) recorded their 15th career dual match victory as a duo. The shutout is the Red Dragons third of the season as the team improved to 4-1 overall, and the Saxons dropped to 0-1 this season.
Chippari and Schmid improved to 5-0 this season on the No. 1 court with a 6-2 win over Breece Erickson and Anlun Zwerver. Junior
Seth Cheung (Somers, N.Y./Somers) and sophomore
Ryan Geller (Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y./Cornwall) went to 3-1 as a team after they defeated Josh Erickson and Bill Tran, 6-2 on court No. 3.
Sophomores
Peter Pitaleff (Garrison, N.Y./Highland Falls Fort Montgomery) and
Jaden Ritterman (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) had an energetic match on court No. 2 against Matthew Bittel and Andre Jimenez, where the teams' traded games with one another and went into a tiebreaker. During the back-and-forth tiebreak, the Red Dragons returned the ball and thought they earned the point, however play continued and the Saxons ended up with the point to make it 6-6. Pitaleff and Ritterman composed themselves after the mishap and won the next two points to take the match, 7-6 (8-6), and improved to 4-1 as a pair.
Oneonta's dominance continued in singles play with six straight set victories. Chippari and Schmid each bested their singles opponents, 6-1, 6-3 on courts No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Chippari beat Jimenez to boost his singles record to 3-1 this season, and Schmid outplayed B. Erickson to elevate his singles record to 4-1. Ritterman shut down Zwerver, 6-2, 6-3 on court No. 3 to raise his record to 3-1 in singles.
Pitaleff, Geller and sophomore
Aiden Wavra (Katy, TX/Katy) all bageled their singles opponents in one set of their respective straight set victories. Pitaleff joined Schmid and became 4-1 in singles with a controlling 6-1, 6-0 win on court No. 4 over Bittel. Geller overwhelmed J. Erickson on court No. 5 and posted a 6-0, 6-3 performance to improve his record to 3-2 in singles. Wavra's first set was close against Tran on court No. 6, but he won the 12th game to avoid the tiebreaker, then he closed it out with a bagel for a 7-5, 6-0 victory, lifting his singles record to 3-1 overall.
The Red Dragons cap off the fall season with a home match against Marywood on Saturday, October 18, at 12 pm at the Dr. Heissan Tennis Courts.
