October 26, 2005 - FDU 4 Rider 3

October 26, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Men’s College Tennis

Fairleigh Dickinson University 4, Rider University 3

TEANECK—Academics over athletics. At Rider, when the athletes have an obligation to be in class, they attend class.  When the head coach is a retired teacher and vice principal, there is no question about the class first policy.  Such as it was today, as junior number one singles player Radgee Saberon (Berlin, N.J./Overbrook) was hitting the books in his biology lab instead of hitting tennis balls as Rider fell at Fairleigh Dickinson 4-3 on Wednesday.

“I’m not one to make any excuses,” said Rider head coach Ed Torres.  “But not having Radgee there today seemed to throw us out of sync since everyone had to play up a position.”

Rider (3-7) split the six singles matches with number three senior Mike Greenberg (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock) and number four sophomore Jim Leone (Forked River, N.J./Lacey Township) winning in straight sets.

“The lineup changes also threw off the doubles pairings since I had players together who aren’t used to playing together,” added Torres who retired in 1994 from the Neptune Middle School after 35 years, where he served as a Spanish teacher and the last 20 years as vice-principal.  “After splitting the singles matches, today came down to the doubles and we couldn’t pull it out.”

Greenberg and freshman Casey Jedlinski (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan) won the Broncs only doubles point.

“The lineup change didn’t affect me too much,” said Greenberg who won at number three singles.  “I played number three at the beginning of the semester, so I was able to make a quick adjustment and win a close match.”

The cold, windy day didn’t phase the Broncs as much as the lineup change did.  “The weather affected both sides equally but didn’t give anyone an advantage as both players have to hit and receive the ball in the wind,” said Torres who is in his 11^th season as head coach.

“I was very happy with our effort,” Torres said.  “We did our best today against tough conditions while undermanned.  If Radgee is there, we probably win 4-3 or even 5-2 but if they have an academic obligation to fulfill, that’s why they are at Rider, to get their college degree.”

The men and women are back in action this weekend hosting Drexel on Saturday before completing the fall season, hosting La Salle on Sunday.  Both matches start at 11:00am.

Good thing none of the players have class on the weekend.

-RU-

Singles
Daniel Wynne F def. Chris Stanco-R                                        6-3, 6-0
Justin Seow F def. Casey Jedlinski-R                                      6-7 (5), 7-6 (1), 7-4
Mike Greenberg-R def. Esteban Blanco-F                               6-4, 7-5
Jim Leone R def. Rodrigo Avila-F                                             6-2, 6-0
Christopher Bowers-F def. Jeremy Finkelson-Reece-R         2-6, 6-2, 7-5
Dan Stupp R def. Constandinos Efthymiou-F                           6-3, 6-2

Doubles
Seow/Blanko-F def. Stanco/Finkelson-Reece-R                     8-6
Greenberg/Jedlinski-R def. Wynne/Bowers-F                          8-5
Avila/Efthymiou-F def. Eng/Warlow-R                                       8-5