Men's Tennis Stays Undefeated In Conference Play; Downs Saint Anselm, 9-0
MANCHESTER, NH– The Merrimack men's tennis team stayed undefeated in conference action with the dominating 9-0 victory over the Saint Anselm Hawks on Wednesday night. With the win, Merrimack improves to 3-1 overall and 3-0 in NE-10 action, including 13 straight against NE-10 foes.
"I am very proud of how our guys came out and played today," said head coach Sean Tully. "We put an emphasis on our singles matches and we came through with six victories which was big for us this afternoon."
The Warriors dominated all the singles matches on the afternoon as they won all six in easy fashion. Petar Golijanin (Novi Sad, Serbia) and Mark Mallory (Portland, OR) both dominated their matches, downing their opponents by the same score, 8-0. Sophomore Vince Bellino (Amesbury, Mass.) continued his solid play with an impressive 8-1 win while junior Chris Barnhart (Longmeadow, Mass.) cruised to the 6-1, 6-0 win over Will Condon. The freshman duo of Matt Pronesti (Mission Viejo, Calif.) and Matt Lipinski (Arlington, Mass.) stayed perfect in conference matches with their 6-2, 6-2 and 6-3, 6-3 wins, respectively.
Doubles action was more of the same for the Warriors as they won all three matches. Lipinski and Pronesti were the most impressive as they defeated Chris Schwab and Joe Zucchi by the score of 8-2 while Barnhart and Bellino finished off their opponents with the 8-4 win. Appearing in his only match, Chris Toegemann (Narragansett, RI) joined Mallory in doubles action to defeat their Hawk opponents by the score of 8-3, earning the sweep for the Warriors, 9-0.
The Warriors weekend matchups with Georgetown and the District of Columbia have been cancelled due to the inclement weather expected this weekend. Merrimack will return to the courts on Wednesday, March 20 as they will take on Boston University.
Singles:
Matt Pronesti def. Chris Schwab 6-2, 6-2
Matt Lipinski def. Joe Zucchi 6-3, 6-3
Chris Barnhart def. Will Condon 6-1, 6-0
Vince Bellino def. Mike Hanna 8-1
Petar Golijanin def. Kyle White 8-0
Mark Mallory def. John Joyce 8-0
Doubles:
Lipinski/Pronesti def. Schwab/Zucchi 8-2
Barnhart/Bellino def. Condon/White 8-4
Toegemann/Mallory def. Hanna/Greeke 8-3
