Rider men’s team impressive against Hawks
By Christopher Cole
The Broncs (3-6 overall, 0-2 MAAC) came out strong against Wagner yesterday.
“Everyone played well,” Head Coach Ed Torres told Rider Sports Information. “We’ve played a tough fall schedule so it was nice to get the win today.”
Junior Casey Jedlinski won at first singles against senior Adam Amster 6-2, 6-3. Freshman Josh Rultenberg was able to defeat sophomore John LeBlanc in three sets 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Sophomore Will Haight continued the streak as he defeated sophomore Ben Serbiak 6-2, 6-1. Sophomore Marc Ashed won at fourth singles 6-3, 6-1 over sophomore Byron Clohessy, and freshman Chris Esposito handled senior Will Shuler easily 6-0, 6-1. In the last singles match, freshman Robert Olson defeated junior Sheldon Wilson 6-4, 6-1.
The Broncs weren’t given much trouble in doubles competition.
Jedlinski teamed up with Rultenberg, and they defeated Amster and Clohessy 8-3. Haight and Ashed continued to show that they were a good pair as they rolled 8-1 over LeBlanc and Serbiak. Senior Tom Becker and Esposito finished off the Rider sweep as they beat Shuler and freshman Charles Laquidara 8-1.
Despite some close matches, the Broncs’ men’s tennis team lost 6-1 against Siena last Saturday.
Ashed earned the Broncs’ only win against Siena, defeating Jay Godbole 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 10-7.
Ashed commented on how he managed to stay positive during his singles match.
“I think because I have had experience with letting a point or a certain call stay in my head and bother me throughout a match that I have been trying to play with a short memory and just play point by point,” Ashed said. “In the Siena match, a bad call went my opponent’s way, and I just tried to forget about it, and I was able to bounce back and pretty much control the rest of the match.”
Head Coach Torres discussed how the Broncs’ match against Siena was closer than the 6-1 score shows.
“Three of the singles matches had tiebreakers so you can see it was a very close match even though we lost 6-1,” said Torres. “We could have possibly won the match but we had to win the doubles point, which we did not.”
The women’s team lost 6-1 to Monmouth on Wednesday.
Rider sophomore Kristina Paich won the Broncs’ sole match against Monmouth, defeating Kaitlin Gallagher 6-4, 2-6, 10-2. Paich stressed the importance of patience.
“I knew if I kept the rallies going it would force my opponent into a mistake so I tried to play a more patient match,” said Paich to Rider Sports Information. “I played a tiebreaker last week and I was winning before I lost late so I learned from that experience and said, ‘I’m not losing this time.’ I dug deep and was determined to win it.”
The men’s next match will be at home against St. Francis of PA tomorrow at noon.
