LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - The Marist men's tennis team saw its 2009-10 season come to a close on Friday at the hands of the defending NCAA champions, the USC Trojans at Marks Stadium in the first round of the 2010 team Tournament. The final score of the match favored the #5 Trojans 4-0. Despite the loss, the Red Foxes hung tough in two of three doubles matches on the day.
After the second ranked doubles team in the nation of Robert Farah and Steve Johnson shutout Marist's Landon Greene (Palos Verdes, Calif.) and Joris Van Eck (Ospel, Netherlands) at the top spot in the lineup, the second and third pairings for the Red Foxes hung tough in tightly contested matches. At third doubles, a match that was unfinished due to NCAA rules, senior Loic Sessagesimi (Blonay, Switzerland) and junior Nicolas Pisecky (Lausanne, Switzerland) were down a break at 7-5 when the match was halted.
The match that clinched the doubles point was at the second spot in the lineup. Daniel Nguyen and JT Sundling of USC defeated senior Christian Coley (Glastonbury, Conn.) and Matt Himmelsbach (Longmeadow, Mass.) 8-6.
In singles action, the Trojans entered the match with four of their six singles players ranked in the top-125. Farah, ranked ninth nationally, disposed of Coley in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0. The match was tied at two all before Farah rattled off 10 straight games to take the first singles match.
Van Eck lost at fourth singles to Matt Kecki, 6-1, 6-2. Sessgesimi lost his first match in NCAA Tournament play on Friday. He fell to #3 Johnson, 6-0, 6-3 at second singles, for the fourth point of the day to end the match.
Upon the conclusion of the second singles match, the three remaining singles matches were halted in accordance with NCAA regulations. Pisecky left #83 Nguyen without a win as Pisecky trailed, 6-1, 5-3. Himmelsbach held off Lucassen, the 121st ranked player in the country, in his fifth singles match. Lucassen was ahead 6-3, 5-0.
For the second straight year, Greene was the furthest from finishing his singles contest at the NCAA Tournament. This year he trailed McNaughton in the second set, after he lost the first se. The score was at 6-0, 3-2 when play was stopped.
Marist concludes the season with a record of 14-6 overall as it had its 11-game win streak snapped on Friday. The Red Foxes have appeared in the NCAA Tournament each of the last three seasons.