Saturday afternoon brought two upset victories over Niagara University, and a chance at the MAAC tournament for the men’s and women’s tennis teams.
Unfortunately, the results paralleled yet again a day later, as both teams lost to Marist in the tournament finals in Queens, N.Y.
“The team performed brilliantly,” said Head Coach Ed Paige. “Friday was as expected. Saturday was spectacular. Sunday was deflating,” Sophomore Dana Postupack lost in singles’ competition to the Red Foxes’ Christine Ong, 7-5 and 6-0.
Postupack finishes the season with a team-high 17 wins in singles matches. Senior Courtney Price fell to Emily Zampello in a highly-contested third singles’ match.
Despite the loss to Marist, the team overcame a myriad of injuries and responded after a 3-11 start to the season. “After the Rhode Island loss, we met in the locker room and agreed that it was a new season,” said Paige.
“We gave them the number seven, as in the number of matches we needed to win in a row,” he added. “It was a building block for them to make the finals.”
As for the men, Marist swept Fairfield in all seven matches on the afternoon, which ended the Stags six-match winning streak. Sophomore Ryan Berthod was defeated in the first singles’ competition.
Balazs Szikla ’08 had difficulty as well, as he lost the final singles match of his career to Marist’s Nicholas Pisecky. In the doubles competition, the Stags dropped the first two doubles matches before salvaging the third.
“When you are an underdog, you have to win the doubles point,” said Paige. “We did that against Niagara, and they blinked. “We couldn’t do that against Marist,” he said.
Paige added, “Both teams came together tremendously at the end of the season, which is exactly what you want as a coach.”
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