EWING, NJ. -- The Oneonta men's tennis team was tripped up in their WIAC opening match against No. 39 nationally ranked TCNJ, 7-0, Friday afternoon in Ewing, New Jersey. Oneonta had a chance to win the first doubles court, however TCNJ came away with it for the sweep, then the top 40 ranked host team won all six courts in straight sets. The result moved the Red Dragons to an overall record of 9-11, 0-1 in the WIAC, and improved the Lions to 13-4 this season, and 1-0 in conference play.
"Tough conference loss today to another top 40 team in the country," said Head Coach
Brian Roser. "The guys put up a good fight. Especially Chippari and Schmid who were one break away from taking the first doubles. We'll reset tomorrow and look to secure 2nd in the east division."
TCNJ started the match by securing all three doubles courts. Senior
William Schmid (Yonkers/Salesian HS) and junior
Chris Chippari (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) traded games with Harrison Maitland-Carter and Asa Wong on first doubles court, but Maitland-Carter and Wong ended on top for a 6-4 decision. Sophomores
Peter Pitaleff (Garrison, N.Y./Highland Falls Fort Montgomery) and
Jaden Ritterman (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) fell to Alberto Thomas and Nathan Chan on court two, 6-1, and sophomore
Ryan Geller (Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y./Cornwall) and freshman
Amine Abidi (Casablanca, Morocco/John A .Coleman Catholic) stumbled on court three to Sidd Arudi and Faris Shehata, 6-1.
Chippari battled against Thomas on the top singles court. The intense match went back-and-forth in the first set and into a tiebreaker, where Thomas got the upper hand. The Lion then took the second set for the match, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
Schmid had a close match against Maitland-Carter on court two, but Maitland-Carter pulled away in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. Ritterman came up short in a pair of 6-2 sets to Chan on court three, and Pitaleff was bested on court four by Shehata, 6-3, 6-1. Geller fell to Aidan Twamley on court five, 6-0, 6-2, while senior
Nate Inzerillo (Center Moriches/Center Moriches) dropped straight 6-1 sets to Brett Schuster.
The Red Dragons cap off the regular season with a WIAC match against Rutgers-Camden at TCNJ's campus starting at 10 am.
