Oct. 2, 2010

Bronx, N.Y. - In an extremely hard fought match that saw four matches go the distance, the Fordham men's tennis fell just short of a win over the La Salle Explorers by a count of 4-3 on Saturday at the Hawthorn/Rooney Tennis Courts.

The match opened with La Salle earning the doubles point, winning two of the three matches. La Salle won at first and second doubles by scores of 8-5 and 8-4, while Fordham took the third doubles match, as Kevin Maloney and Dan Kane-West defeated Robert Knuster and Joe Labate, 8-4.

In singles play, Fordham mounted a comeback with four of the six singles matches going the distance. At first singles, Fordham's Alex DeRienzo dropped the first set to George Gennaoui, 3-6, but rallied back in the final two sets, 6-4 and 6-3, to earn Fordham its first point of the match.

La Salle grabbed singles points at third and fourth singles in straight sets to go-ahead by a 3-1 count.

At fifth singles, Kane-West also lost his first set to Knuster, 3-6, but he would also come all the way back to win his match in the final two frames, 6-1 and 6-4.

La Salle then earned the overall team victory at second singles. Fordham's Maloney won the opening set, 6-4, however Chaz Berenato found his way back to win the final two sets, 6-2, and 6-3.

The final match saw the best comeback of all the three-set matches, as Eli Plangger took on Mikel Kosich at sixth singles. Kosich won the first set, 6-4, with Plangger taking the second set, 6-4. In the final set, Kosich pulled out to a 5-2 edge, however Plannger rallied all the way back to force a tie-breaker, in which he scored the final four points to win the tie-breaker and his match, 7-6 (8-6).

The Fordham men's tennis team will next be in action on Tuesday, October 5th, when it hosts Rider at 3:00 PM on the Hawthorn/Rooney Tennis Courts.

Fordham vs. La Salle - October 2, 2010

Singles
1) Alex DeRienzo (FOR) def. George Gennaoui, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
2) Chaz Berenato (LAS) def. Kevin Maloney, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
3) Trevor Donnavan (LAS) def. Ken Fukumoto, 7-6, 6-2
4) Joe Labate (LAS) def. Andriy Kulak, 6-2, 6-2
5) Dan Kane-West (FOR) def. Robert Knuster, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
6) Eli Plangger (FOR) def. Mikel Kosich, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6)

Doubles
1) Gennaoui/Berenato (LAS) def. Nick Kelly / Fukumoto, 8-5
2) Donnovan/Kosich (LAS) def. Plangger/DeRienzo, 8-4
3) Maloney/Kane-West (FOR) def. Knuster/Labate , 8-4