2008 Woodie Awards
Men's tennis competes at Columbia Classic
Matt Spillane
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Sports
The Marist men's tennis team proved last weekend that it is not afraid of competing against the best. Marist traveled to New York City for the Columbia Classic on Friday, Jan. 25, to challenge some of the finest teams in the Northeast. Cornell, St. John's, Yale, Harvard, Fairleigh Dickinson (FDU), Manhattan, and Columbia participated in the tournament.
Harvard and Columbia are perennial Ivy League powers, while St. John's and FDU are consistent contenders in the Big East and Northeast Conference, respectively. The Red Foxes also squared off against Manhattan, which has defeated Marist in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championship each of the last four years.
Battling against such accomplished opponents, Marist came away from the weekend with two consolation victories and a runner-up finish in the Flight C final.
Freshman Nicolas Pisecky defeated Harvard's Tim Wu 6-3, 6-3 in the Flight C semifinals to advance to the finals match, where he lost to Dan Urban of Columbia 6-4, def.
Senior captain Greg Marks and sophomore Loic Sessagesimi each earned consolation victories. Marks knocked off Yale's Tom Santoro 6-2, 7-6, while Sessagesimi eliminated Matt Gordon from FDU 6-1, 6-1.
Marist head coach Tim Smith expressed his delight over his team's performance.
"This is the best our team has played at a major tournament in the last four years," he said. "They were all good matches. For Nicholas to get to the Flight C draw, and Loic and Greg to win consolations was an outstanding situation for us."
Marks reiterated his coach's sentiments, acknowledging the high quality of the teams at the tournament.
"It was one of the best weekends our team has played," he said. "They were top-notch schools. We stayed composed, competed hard, and the results showed."
Although the team's singles play has been stellar, Smith said he wants more out of the doubles pairs.
"We had outstanding singles play, but our doubles could have been better," he said. "I was not happy with our doubles teams. It was unsettling."
Harvard and Columbia are perennial Ivy League powers, while St. John's and FDU are consistent contenders in the Big East and Northeast Conference, respectively. The Red Foxes also squared off against Manhattan, which has defeated Marist in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championship each of the last four years.
Battling against such accomplished opponents, Marist came away from the weekend with two consolation victories and a runner-up finish in the Flight C final.
Freshman Nicolas Pisecky defeated Harvard's Tim Wu 6-3, 6-3 in the Flight C semifinals to advance to the finals match, where he lost to Dan Urban of Columbia 6-4, def.
Senior captain Greg Marks and sophomore Loic Sessagesimi each earned consolation victories. Marks knocked off Yale's Tom Santoro 6-2, 7-6, while Sessagesimi eliminated Matt Gordon from FDU 6-1, 6-1.
Marist head coach Tim Smith expressed his delight over his team's performance.
"This is the best our team has played at a major tournament in the last four years," he said. "They were all good matches. For Nicholas to get to the Flight C draw, and Loic and Greg to win consolations was an outstanding situation for us."
Marks reiterated his coach's sentiments, acknowledging the high quality of the teams at the tournament.
"It was one of the best weekends our team has played," he said. "They were top-notch schools. We stayed composed, competed hard, and the results showed."
Although the team's singles play has been stellar, Smith said he wants more out of the doubles pairs.
"We had outstanding singles play, but our doubles could have been better," he said. "I was not happy with our doubles teams. It was unsettling."
Be the first to comment on this story