Gainesville, Fla. ? The Marist men’s tennis team suffered a 4-0 loss to #10 Florida in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Red Foxes battled during the match but the Gators were just too much to handle. Sophomore Landon Greene (Palos Verdes, Calif.) had his match halted during a first set tiebreaker after the match was decided.
Greene was facing Johnny Hamui at fifth singles. He was down 4-2 in the first set, but battled back to get on serve and force the tiebreak. After the match was decided, play was halted in three matches, including Greene’s. His score was 6-6, (4-6).
Junior Christian Coley (Glastonbury, Conn.) was defeated by #23 Carlos Cueto of Florida, 6-1, 6-0. Cueto is one of two Gators that will participate in singles in the individual NCAA Championships in the weeks to come. That match was contested for the first singles point.
At sixth singles, Matt Himmelsbach (Longmeadow, Mass.) was bested by Jeff Dadamo, 6-1, 6-3.
Junior Loic Sessagesimi (Blonay, Switzerland) faced #33 Alex Lacroix at second singles. Sessagesimi’s match was not completed. The score was 6-0, 5-2 at the time the match ended.
In the doubles point, Coley and sophomore Rhys Hobbs (Sydney, Australia) fell to the #16 doubles pairing in the nation. Joey Burkhardt and Antoine Benneteau won 8-1.
At second doubles Himmelsbach and Sessagesimi fell to Dadamo and Hamui, 8-0. The third doubles match was not completed.
As per NCAA regulations, once four points have been earned by one team, all other matches are to be stopped because it is not possible for the other team to come back and win. On Friday, sophomore Marcus von Nordheim (Munich, Germany) was unable to complete his match due to the rule in addition to Greene and Sessagesimi.
Marist concludes the season at 12-4 overall and has now appeared in seven NCAA Tournaments.