Sept. 22, 2014
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Members of the Lafayette men's tennis team competed in the St. Joseph's Fall Invitational this past weekend at the University's Maguire and Finnesey Courts. Senior Brian Pinkard, juniors Brian Stefanowicz and Chris Matturri, and freshmen Mason Keel and Evan Alexander each earned victories in the event.
Pinkard defeated Loyola's Harrison Kunkel in his Flight 2 match, winning 6-3 in the first set and 6-1 in the second. In the next round, Pinkard was beaten by Army's Peter Sienko in straight sets (6-3, 7-5). Sienko would go on to win the Flight 2 final.
Also winning in Flight 2 was Stefanowicz. He bested Delaware's Tyler Flematti in straight sets winning 6-4 in both. In the second round however, Stefanowicz took the loss to SJU's Tristan Boustany. Boustany went on to play in the flight finals coming up short to Sienko.
In the Flight 4 bracket Lafayette had two victories. The first was Keel who beat Colin Wong from Delaware in three sets (6-4, 2-6, 10-8). He lost in the next round to Sam Caldwell of SJU in straight sets. The second Leopard to win in Flight 4 was Evan Alexander. He dropped the first set to SJU's Grant Boyle 3-6, but fought back and won the last two sets 6-1 and 10-6.
Matturri won his first round Flight 3 consolation match against Loyola's Matthew Shure in three sets (6-2, 3-6, 12-10). Other Leopards that competed in singles play were senior Jake Lazer, classmate Brandon Goldstein, and sophomore T.J. Morgan. Goldstein's match against Villanova's Mark Miller went three sets, with Miller winning 5-7, 6-4, 15-13.
The Leopards didn't fare well in the doubles side. The pair of Lazer and Pinkard dropped their match 8-4. Matturri and junior Gavin Studner fell by a score of 8-5. The duos of Goldstein and Stefanowicz, and Keel and Morgan both lost in the tiebreaker by scores of 9-8.
Lafayette is back in action on Friday, September 26th at the three-day Bucknell Invitational in Lewisburg, Pa.
