Drew Men's Tennis Advances To Landmark Finals

MADISON, N.J. - Drew men’s tennis advanced to the Landmark Conference finals with an 8-1 win over Juniata on Tuesday. The Rangers will host Moravian at the Drew Tennis Center on Saturday afternoon in a rematch of one of the season’s best contests. Drew will be looking to win its ninth consecutive conference title.

The Rangers won the oh-so-important doubles points with a three match sweep. Each of the Rangers’ three doubles teams were down a break early in their match, but each powered past their opponents to win going away.

Jeff Marshall and Elliot Smego defeated Juniata’s top pair of Jarrad Silver and Arnab Chakrabarti, 8-2. Alex Belfiore and Matt Brisotti won at second doubles, 8-3, as did Sayed Saber and Victor Kolarov at third doubles.

The singles matches were tight except for two. Brisotti finished first for Drew’s fourth point, 6-0, 6-0, at fourth singles. Alex Belfiore won at second singles for the clinching point. The 6-1, 6-2 win helped Belfiore avenge one of his two conference losses from the regular season as Silver had previously defeated the Drew sophomore.

Jonathan Skoner handed Jeff Marshall his first dropped set of the Landmark season when the Eagle won 6-3 in the first. Marshall responded with two big sets, 0 and 1, to take the first singles point. Victor Kolarov showed some heart in pulling out a 7-5 second set to win in straights at third singles and Elliot Smego won in straights at fifth singles. Only Jon Pransky’s loss at sixth singles prevented the sweep, though Pransky did battle back from a first set loss to push a tiebreaker in the third.

The Rangers will have to play better tennis if they hope to win their second Landmark Conference title against Moravian on Saturday. The Greyhounds defeated Scranton 6-0 in the conference’s other semifinal. Drew and Moravian fought to a 5-4 decision in a classic earlier in the season.

Story provided by Drew Sports Information