Drew Men's Tennis Collects Another Conference Title

MADISON, N.J. - Drew men’s tennis made it nine straight conference championships as it defeated Moravian, 6-3, in the Landmark Finals. The Rangers fought back from a 2-1 deficit after doubles play to take five of the six singles matches. Elliot Smego’s valiant effort at fifth singles clinched the win for the Rangers after Jeff Marshall, Matt Brisott and Jon Pransky had already picked up points. The Greyhounds were once again dangerously close to breaking the Rangers’ now 74-match conference winning streak after a pair of outstanding doubles performances.

Drew had not lost a single doubles point in Landmark Conference play this season prior to today’s match. In fact, for years the Rangers had built The Legacy on the simple plan of taking all three doubles points and then winning with depth in singles play. The Greyhounds looked to have thrown a wrench in the works by taking first and third doubles. Doug Morrow and Nick Yelito handed Marshall and Smego their first doubles loss of the season by pouncing on Ranger mistakes to win 8-4. At third doubles, the Rangers led 5-4 before Chandler Forman and Thomas Turcich rallied to take the final four games and win 8-5.

Only the Killers B’s of Alex Belfiore and Matt Brisotti were able to pull out a point. The second doubles played well in the match to win going away 8-4.

Still, the Rangers trailed 2-1 against a team that took four of six singles matches in the Rangers 5-4 win in the regular season. Things looked bleak as even four-time conference champion Vik Rao C’07 sensed an end to The Legacy on the horizon.
Hopes lifted a bit as singles play began. Matt “Brownie” Brisotti made short work of Chandler Forman. The lefty gave Forman, who beat Elliot Smego earlier in the season, fits in the 6-2, 6-0 win. In the court next to that fourth singles match, Drew’s Victor “The Bulgarian Bomber” Kolarov was getting bombed by Drew Shreter. The win was Shreter’s 20th of the season as he moved up a spot to third singles due to an injury to Moravian’s number one, Ian Box.

The score was 3-2 to Moravian when Jeff Marshall finished his dominant win at first singles. Marshall struggled in his doubles loss, but made up for it with a straight set win, 3 and 0, over Doug Morrow. The freshman finishes his rookie season at 18-2 on the season and 9-0 in the Landmark Conference.

All eyes turned to Jon “McLovin” Pransky and the crowd favorite did not disappoint. He cruised to a 6-1 win in the first set before moving to 4-2 in the second. He put sneaker marks on every inch of the court to break Jason Bonilla’s serve to put the match on his racket. Give Bonilla credit, the Greyhounds broke right back to make it 5-3, but not for long.

Pransky worked his socks off to break back and win the match. Perhaps the most indicative point was one he didn’t win. Bonilla served big out wide putting Pransky on the defensive right away, but despite being behind in the point Pransky got to every shot Bonilla tried. Twice, Pransky ran down overheads and on the third one, McLovin had to squeeze against the back fence with forehand falling just wide of a terrific winner. Match point was won with a forehand wide by Bonilla to give Drew a 4-3 lead that quickly became 5-3.

Next door to the Pransky/Bonilla match, Elliot Smego was closing out a straight set win. The freshman has been so good this season that a win over Nick Yelito would be impressive, but not monumental. Smego, though, was not only battling a rolled ankle and a busted finger, but some nasty congestion and cough. The penultimate point of the match was the best one – a 24 point rally that Smego would eventually win. Yelito and Smego traded forehands until the Rangers picked the perfect spot to come to the net.

He picked on a short ball from Yelito to pin the Greyhound into a corner and behind the base line before approaching the net. Smego’s first back hand volley was a bit long and his succeeding forehand volley was tracked down by Yelito well, but his second back hand volley was too well touched as Yelito’s sliding effort just missed the second bounce. A perfectly placed forehand won it and clinched the ninth straight for the Rangers on the next point.

All that was left was Alex Belfiore’s three set, second singles win over Kevin Holze. “The Prince” had already done his job with the doubles win, but still battled to a quality win, bouncing back from a second set loss. Holze suffered just his fourth loss of the season to go with 21 wins.

For Sayed Saber, the Rangers’ lone senior, the win gave him four rings in four years.

Story provided by Drew Sports Information