Saints Sweep Doubles to Beat Oneonta State, 7-2
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Mar. 7: The St. Lawrence University men's tennis team rebounded from a tough loss to Skidmore with an impressive 7-2 win over Oneonta State on Saturday morning at the Newell Field House. The Saints avenge a 5-0 loss to the Red Dragons in the fall after building a 3-0 lead behind outstanding doubles play.
St. Lawrence (2-3) began the doubles portion of the match in style, as their No. 1 and 2 teams breezed to victories to take a 2-0 lead over Oneonta State (5-2). Senior captain Jon Satkowski and junior Chris McDonald handled Matt Stienhauser and Mark Cannizzaro 8-2 at the top doubles position, while the sophomore tandem of Jake Dexter and Ren Gates won their first match together at No. 2, 8-4 over Adam and Josh Slifkin.
The key match proved to be the No. 3 tilt between St. Lawrence's Chris Rodilosso and Christopher Tamm and Oneonta's Jon Dorin and Jeremy Goldberg. In a match that lasted over 90 minutes, the teams were deadlocked at 8-8 and went into a tiebreaker. It was there that Rodilosso and Tamm pulled away from their opponents, winning the tiebreak 7-4 and giving the Scarlet and Brown a nearly insurmountable 3-0 lead heading into singles play.
"That match was critical for us," said St. Lawrence head men's tennis coach Jeremy Freeman. "We were confident after taking a 2-0 lead, but to sweep the doubles gave us all of the momentum needing only two singles wins to clinch the match."
The Saints would easily get those two points, as they won four of the six singles bouts to drop the Red Dragons 7-2. McDonald made it 4-0 with a win over Josh Slifkin at No. 4, 6-3, 6-0 and fittingly, his doubles partner Satkowski would clinch the match with a 6-0, 6-2 win at the No. 1 slot against Steinhauser.
Gates and Rodilosso also earned singles wins at No.'s 5 and 6, respectively. Gates closed out Matt Hanson 6-4, 6-4 while Rodilosso, a junior captain, delivered a 6-3, 6-4 win over Dorin.
Oneonta's lone points in the match came from Adam Shapiro and Adam Slifkin, who won at No. 2 and 3 singles. Shapiro battled senior Pete Abernethy in a great dual, winning 6-4, 4-6 (10-8) while Slifkin beat sophomore Will Cook, 6-2, 6-4.
The match was the final dual-match for the Saints' men's tennis team until the squad heads south during the spring recess. The team will square off with Macalester, Allegheny and Wooster during their trip to Hilton Head, SC on March 17-19.