Sept. 24, 2006
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The Fairfield men's tennis team successfully defended its ECAC North Championship title this morning as three of the four Stags that advanced to the finals captured individual gold.
Fairfield took the team title with 12 total points while host Vassar was the runner-up with eight points. New York University, Oneonta, and Saint Peter's College all tied with 5.5 points each.
Freshman Ryan Berthod (White Plains, N.Y.) took gold at second singles by edging out Saint Peter's JJ Grammatica, 6-3, 6-4.
At third singles, top-seeded Michael Palumbo (Winchester, Mass.), a silver medalist last year, downed Vassar's Mike Mattelson, 6-4, 6-1, to capture the bracket.
Top-seeded Zachary Morrison (Los Angeles, Calif.) won the fourth singles title with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Oneonta's Matt Steinhauser.
Senior Jonathan Fernando (Verona, N.J./St. Peter's Prep) took home the silver medal at first singles after a tough battle against Mikhail Gurevic of NYU. After a see-saw match, Gurevic slipped by Fernando, 7-6, 7-6.
In the fifth singles consolation bracket, top-seeded Tim Mahoney (Naples, Fla.) fell to NYU's PJ Marancha, 6-0, 6-0.
In 2005, Fairfield had one gold medalist and three silver medalists to edge out NYU, 22-20, for the team title.
The Stags are back in action Sept. 29-Oct. 1 when they participate in the UConn Invitational.
