March 25, 2008

Scranton, Pa. - Box Score

The Neumann Knights men's tennis team travelled to Scranton, Pa. to take on the pre-season third seeded Marywood Pacers. Head Coach Chris Gosseaux expected a tight, competitive match and he got one. The Knights won the match 5-4 behind single wins in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth single flights.

The Knights found themselves down 2-1 after the doubles matches. The Knights win in doubles coming from freshmen Chris Brown and Greg Bridgeman in the third flight. Knowing the team would need to win four out of six singles Coach Gosseaux went to work motivating his team to succeed.

The Pacers were able to win the first and second singles flight. But not without a fight. Freshmen Chris Brown extended his matcht to a third set super tie-breaker before losing 1-6, 7-5, 6-10. Freshmen Greg Bridgeman lost at second singles 1-6, 1-6 but not without battling and challenging his opponent in each game.

In third singles senior John Slinka won 6-3, 6-0 followed by fellow seniors Andrew Bitar at the 5th singles and Barry Harvey at the sixth singles with scores of 6-1, 6-0 and 6-2, 6-2 respectively.

The clinching points came when Dan Harnos won at the fourth flight6-3, 6-0. Harnos victory gave the Knights the fifth and final point of the match. This was the first time in school history the the Knights have beaten the Pacers at Marywood. It is the second consecutive season the Knights have defeated the perennial PAC power. The Knights defeated the Pacers at home in the 2007 season.

The Knights' record improves to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in the PAC. The Pacers record falls to 3-1 overall and 0-1 in the PAC. The Knights return to action on Thursday when the take on the Gwynedd Mercy College Griffins at Neumann College on February 27, 2008.