College Tennis News - Men's Tennis Wins Back-To-Back MAAC Titles; Sessagesimi Named Tournament's MOP

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Sessagesimi Clinched The Marist Victory At Second Singles

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. - On his second match point of the day, junior co-captain Loic Sessagesimi (Blonay, Switzerland) picked up the deciding point in the Marist men's tennis 5-2 victory over the top-seeded Fairfield in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Title match. It was the second consecutive season the Red Foxes and Stags have met in the title match in as many seasons, with Marist winning both matches. Sessagesimi was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Performer for the second consecutive year.

Sessagesimi defeated Dan Sauter 6-4, 6-1. In the first set, Sessagesimi was up 5-4 with Sauter serving. Sessagesimi got the crucial break to take the first set and swung the momentum in his favor for the remainder of the match.

The Red Foxes kicked off the day by winning their third doubles point of the weekend, as Marist notched victories at no. 1 and no. 3. At first doubles, Marist's team of Christian Coley (Glastonbury, Conn.) and Rhys Hobbs (Sydney, Australia) remained on serve until 4-4 with Joe Michalisin and Rob Ferrante. In the ninth game of the pro-set, Coley and Hobbs fought to break Ferrante's serve to take a 5-4 lead. Coley and Hobbs went on to win three of the next four games en route to an 8-5 victory. Their victory clinched the doubles point.

The first of the matches completed was at third doubles. Sophomores Nicolas Pisecky (Lausanne, Switzerland) and Landon Greene (Palos Verde, Calif.) took a conventional 8-5 decision. Pisecky and Greene took an early 5-2 lead and did not look back. It was their 10th straight doubles victory. Earlier in the streak, Pisecky and Greene defeated Chip Palumbo and Aaron Chan, Fairfield's no. 3 tandem, 8-6, during the regular season.
In singles action, Greene was the first Marist player off the court with a victory. He defeated Ryan Berthod, 6-2, 6-2. The win in the title match avenged a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Berthod in the regular season.

The next player to notch a win for the Red Foxes was Pisecky at third singles. He defeated Aaron Gray 6-3, 6-3 to earn Marist its third point of the afternoon. Pisecky has now won his last three decisions that were finished.

Freshman Matt Himmelsbach (Longmeadow, Mass.) completed a perfect MAAC season as he beat Chip Palumbo for the second time this season in a three-set thriller. The final scores were 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.

With the win, Marist improved to 12-3 on the season, won its seventh MAAC Championship, and clinched its seventh trip to the NCAA Tournament. The championship triumph also avenged a 5-2 regular season loss to the Stags.