April 8, 2008

Men's Tennis defeated Howard University, 7-0, at the Robinson tennis courts as they move to 7-10 on the season and are on a five match winning streak, their longest since the 1998-99 season. With the win the Patriots have tied their record for wins from last season with a possibility of three more matches before the CAA tournament. Howard arrived with only five players for the day, which meant that they would forfeit one doubles match and one singles match.

Mason began with doubles action only needing one win to take the doubles point, but won both in what was the beginning of a rout of Howard, as Brian Fitzgerald and Dan Schneider won 8-2, winning in their last four matches played and moving to 12-9 on the season. Jordan Lipstock and Matt Vaughn were quickly to follow as they won 8-4 and moved on to a two match win streak.

Mason singles was where the real action was at, as all of the sets were very well contested by Howard's single competitors. The first to take a win was Lipstock at the No.5 singles, winning 6-1, 6-3 forcing his opponent into poor position and then capitalizing on his vulnerabilities. Schneider snapped Harwood Hoskins' streak of two straight deciding match points as Schneider fought for every point he scored in a close first set, 6-4, but in the second set his opponent had no answer resulting on a 6-1 cruise for Schneider, with the Patriots' fifth straight win. Hoskins followed Schneider shortly as he had long games in the first set and won 6-3. In the second set Hoskins shut the door on his opponent giving up no games and winning 6-0.

Fitzgerald was the second to last to finish where he played exceptionally well in the first set as he won 6-1. With one set one, all Fitzgerald needed was one more set to win, but Brown of Howard started making shots and putting them in good places. After three games Fitzgerald led 2-1, but lost the next two games to give up the lead and then split the next four games giving Brown the lead 5-4. As it looked like Fitzgerald might go to three sets or a super breaker, Fitzgerald started making shots where Brown couldn't return them. After 12 games the score was tied six a piece and was forced into a tie breaker, which saw Fitzgerald come out with a win 7-3 and take the set 7-6 with it the match. When asked what went thru his mind during that second set he had this to say "Play like your mind cares, but your body doesn't".

The Budagov Invitational was held as Budagov was the last one to finish again. It looked like he was going to lose the first set as Avastni went up 3-0 quickly, but Budagov would take the next five games to capture the lead and would never look back from this point on, winning the first set and second set 6-4.

Since Martin Brown didn't actually have a match today because of the forfeit, he challenged Assistant Coach Bracho to a match of five sets. Coach Bracho quickly showed why he was once in the top 10 junior in singles and doubles in Venezuela as he took the first set 6-0. Taking the first set, Brown rallied back trying everything he could to take the second set, but could not take enough games to get him the set as he lost 6-3. In the third and final set Coach Bracho stopped Brown almost cold as he won 6-1.

Mason looks to continue its winning streak as it travels on the road for the first time in two and half weeks to take on Morgan State at 2 pm on Thursday April 10 in Baltimore, MD.

Doubles
No.1 - Fitzgerald/D.Schneider (MAS) def. Brown/Murray (HU) 8-2
No.2 - Lipstock/Vaughn (MAS) def. Avastni/Nocera (HU) 8-4
No.3 - Budagov/Hoskins (MAS) wins by forfeit
Singles:
No.1 - Brian Fitzgerald (MAS) def. Brown (HU) 6-1, 7-6 (7-3)
No.2 - Stas Budagov (MAS) def. Avastni (HU) 6-4, 6-4
No.3 - Dan Schneider (MAS) def. Murray (HU) 6-4, 6-1
No.4 - Harwood Hoskins (MAS) def. Jones (HU) 6-3, 6-0
No.5 - Jordan Lipstock (MAS) def. Nocera (HU) 6-1, 6-3
No.6 - Martin Brown (MAS) wins by forfeit
Exhibition Match:
Carlos Bracho (MAS) def. Martin Brown (MAS) 6-0, 6-3, 6-1