Perhaps the Fairfield men’s tennis team had gotten used to playing on the grandest stage in American tennis.
In the shaddow of Arthur Ashe Stadium, the home of the U.S. Open, the Stags had swept Rider 4-0 at the United States Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y Friday afternoon in the first round of the MAAC tournament.
But after Saturday’s semi-final matches were rained out and moved to St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, N.J. the third-seeded Stags had the tables turned on them by No.2 Marist, who ended the Stags season with a 4-0 win.
Had the Stags beaten the Red Foxes and went on to win the tournament championship, Fairfield tennius would have had a team in the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. Last year the Stags’ women’s team won the tournament and went on to play Washington in the first round of the NCAA tourament.
Sophomore singles player Zach Morrison said that despite the loss, the Stags have a lot of young talent and are looking forward towards next year.
“We have a pretty young team; one junior, one senior. Now we have worked together a lot more to carry over to the fall,” he said.
“On the men’s side, we continued to close the gap with the team in front of us,” said Head Coach Jeff Wyshner, who also coaches the men’s team. “This is the third year in a row that we finished third. We made Marist work.”
Defending champs out early
The Fairfield women’s chances of repeating as league champions were dashed early last week when they fell Loyola in the first round of the MAAC tournament.
Last year’s team, which stormed through the tournament as the No. 8 seed to win the school’s only NCAA tournament birth, graduated five of its top six players.
The Stags’ consolation game, which was slated for 11 a.m. on Saturday, was rained out along with the rest of the day’s action.
In the season-ending loss to the Greyhounds was not without its successes. Megan Staufer and Alexis Accomando won their second doubles match, and Staufer won in straight sets in second singles.
But Diana Webb and Christina Chacharone couldn’t come away with a victory in first doubles, nor could any other Stags in the lineup.
“I was very proud of the way the team developed,” Wyshner said. “This is a rebuilding year.”
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