Men’s Tennis extended their winning streak to ten with two 7-0 sweeps of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) opponents Fairfield and Siena, respectively, on the road last weekend as they move to 3-0 in conference play.
“The important thing is to always keep up the same intensity during every match,” said senior Nicola Pipoli. “I always tell the guys, ‘if you have to give the opponent 6-0 6-0, you do it.’ Never bring your level down to your opponent’s level.”
The squad began their winning weekend on Saturday at noon where they defeated Fairfield without losing a single individual matchup.
In singles, senior Srdjan Jakovljevic began with two 6-4 wins.
Pipoli won his singles matches, 6-2 and 6-4 before junior Max Benaim swept his opponent with two 6-0 wins.
Sophomore Will Cooke Wharton defeated his opponent 6-3 and 7-6, and junior Sergio Martinez was victorious 6-2 and 6-0.
Senior Alberto Giuffrida finished up singles with 6-1 and 6-2 victories.
In doubles, Pipoli and Cooke Wharton combined to win their matchup 6-4 while Benaim and Martinez won theirs in a clean sweep of 6-0.
Jakovljevic and Giuffrida closed out the match with a 7-5 win.
Monmouth traveled to Siena the next day for a 2:00 p.m. match, where they won again by a score of 7-0. The same team members, in the same order, were victorious in all of their matchups.
Jakovljevic (6-2, 6-3), Pipoli (6-1, 7-5), Cooke Wharton (6-1, 6-0), Martinez (6-4, 6-2), and Giuffrida (6-3, 6-2) won their singles matches.
Benaim also won his, but he was the only Hawk to have played a third round, eventually winning 10-6 after winning the first round 7-6 and losing the second 5-7.
In doubles, Pipoli and Cooke Wharton were 6-3 victors, Benaim and Martinez won 6-1, and Jakovljevic and Giuffrida’s match finished 6-3.
With the pair of wins, Men’s Tennis bumped themselves up to 12-1 on the season with five total matches and three in the MAAC left to go.
Head Coach Chris Leicht is pleased with the team’s playing so far, and attributes the success to the attitudes of his players.
“We have great leaders here, led by our captain Nicola [Pipoli] . He leads by example and is the hardest working player on the team. Also, our team’s other seniors, Srdjan [Jakovljevic] and Alberto [Giuffrida], are also very experienced and know how to win big matches,” said Leicht.
Monmouth will next welcome Wagner to West Long Branch, NJ for a non-conference match at 4:00 p.m. today before a stretch of three straight MAAC games.
Leicht expects to continue the winning culture that has been created at Monmouth over the past few years.
“The men have been working hard in both practice and matches. We want to stay healthy, and also keep the intensity level very high. Also, we are trying to peak at the end of the season, in time for playoffs and hopefully NCAA National Tourney,” said Leicht.
Pipoli and the team have the same goals, “Our team goals are of course winning the conference one more time and trying to maybe win one round in the NCAA Tournament”.
PHOTO COURTESY of Stockton Photo
