Coley, Raynor Earn MAAC Tennis Weekly Awards
MAAC Sports
Edison, NJ – Marist’s Christian Coley and Kelsey Raynor were named the MAAC Men’s and Women’s Tennis Players of the Week, respectively.
Coley, a senior from Glastonbury, Conn., went 5-0 in singles and doubles as Marist shutout Fairfield, the 2009 regular season champions, Loyola and Hartford last week. Both his singles matches were won in straight sets over Joe Michalisin of Fairfield and Aneil Bhalla of Hartford. Coley got the better of Michalisin 7-5, 6-3 to avenge a three-set loss in the 2009 MAAC Championship match. On Monday, he bested Bhalla, 6-2, 6-4 as both matches were contested at first singles. In doubles action, Coley pushed his doubles winning streak to seven matches with three victories with partner Matt Himmelsbach. He started the week with two second doubles victories over Ryan Berthod and Rob Ferrante of Fairfield and Kevin Zingler and Dan D’Agostino of Loyola. The Marist pair defeated the teams from Fairfield and Loyola 8-3 and 8-5, respectively. The week concluded with an 8-4 win at first doubles over Bhalla and Marco Neves of Hartford.
Raynor, a freshman from Garden City, N.Y., pushed her singles winning streak to five and doubles winning streak to six with wins at first singles and no. 1 doubles over opponents from Fairfield and Loyola. In her match against Fairfield’s Dana Postupack, Raynor shutout her counterpart, holding her at love, 6-0, 6-0 at the East Campus Tennis Pavilion on Tuesday. During the match with the Stags, she paired with Joana Sun to get past Paulina Rys and Kristen Liu 8-6. She closed the week with two critical wins at Loyola to help the Red Foxes secure the second seed in the MAAC Championship this weekend. She came back from a set down to beat Rachel Janasek 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) at first singles. Raynor again paired with Sun for an 8-6 doubles victory over Janasek and Kerri Swan.
The MAAC Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships will take place from April 23rd through April 25th at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York.