The Monmouth University men’s tennis team hosted St John’s for a mid-week game on Wednesday, April 12. Coming off of a win against CAA opponent Hofstra a couple days earlier, the Hawks were looking to extend their win-streak to nine games.
Senior Niels Van Noord kicked off the afternoon of tennis in singles competition against the Red Storm’s Diogo Marques. Van Noord, could not make a fist against Marques and lost the matchup, 6-3, 6-3. Dmitry Bezborodov brought Monmouth back in the series after beating his opponent in three sets, 6-1, 3-6, and 6-3. Victor Castro notched another win for the Hawks by winning his single play convincingly, 6-0 7-5. Games four and five went to St John’s side after Alex Zuckerman took his match to three sets but couldn’t capitulate in the final set. Christof Zeiler made his opponent go into a third set as well but couldn’t get the win. Monmouth’s sixth game was put to a stop in the second set and didn’t get finished.
In doubles competition, Bezborodov and Van Noord started off against their respective opponents that they had faced in singles earlier but couldn’t get the win, falling 7-5. Monmouth’s Brazilian duo, Castro and Gabriel Busato, brought the Hawks back in the doubles competition with a 6-3 win. Arthur Dussaubat and Zeiler brought their set to a tiebreak for an attempt to clinch the doubles point, but St John’s ultimately took the win.
After clinching the doubles point, St John’s took the win with a final score of 4-2 and put an end to Monmouth’s eight-game win-streak. The Hawks were close in multiple matches which showed a relatively equal matchup between the two teams, but the visitors simply executed better in the critical moments.
After a close game earlier in the week, the Morgan State Bears came to play Monmouth on their Senior Day on Friday, April 14, providing the Hawks with an opportunity to bounce back from their loss against St John’s.
Van Noord was again defeated in singles competition, falling in three sets to the Bears’ Mikeal Carpenter. Castro won singles No. 2 decisively, 6-1, 6-1, and Zuckerman beat his opponent in two sets, 6-4 6-0.
Monmouth also won singles match No. 4, 5, and 6. Zeiler won in two sets, 6-4 6-1, while Silva dominated and let his opponent only get one game, it was 6-0 and 6-1 after two sets. Dussaubat needed a third set to defeat his opponent but sent the Hawks into doubles play with a comfortable 5-1 lead.
After dominating in singles play, the Hawks kept things going and were the stronger team in the doubles competition. All three doubles games went to Monmouth’s side, clinching the final point of the series and bringing the final score to 6-1 to secure the Senior Day win.
The next and final hurdle of the week for the Hawks were the NJIT Highlanders, who they hosted on Sunday, April 16.
Van Noord finally earned a win for the Hawks in No. 1 singles, beating his opponent Pablo Perez Ramos in two sets, 6-2 6-4. Bezborodov claimed another win, also ending his match in two sets, 7-5 6-2. Castro posted the final singles win for Monmouth, 6-1 6-3, as games four, five, and six all went unfinished.
Monmouth clinched the extra point in doubles play after Bezborodov and Van Noord beat their opponents 6-4 and Busato and Castro did the same with the exact same score. The third match was for the visitors but that didn’t matter for the extra point anymore as that would be awarded to Monmouth regardless. The final score of the game was 4-0 in favor of the Hawks, their second win of the week.
Van Noord had a tough week in singles play but managed to get the win against his opponent from NJIT.
Castro extended his winning streak to nine matches, while Bezborodov won his fifth game in a row against NJIT. It was an unfortunate week of singles play for Busato as both of his matches went unfinished, but he performed well in doubles play as he and Castro remain unbeaten, holding a 10-0 record in doubles play.
The Hawks moved to 16-5 for the season after recording two wins and a loss this week and are currently 2-1 in conference. The Hawks are on fire at home with a 12-2 record but can’t seem to dominate on the road with a 3-3 away record.
Up next, Monmouth will take on the Drexel Dragons in their last CAA conference matchup on Saturday, April 22. The Dragons are currently 8-10 overall and 2-1 in CAA play, a similar conference record to the Hawks.