St. Lawrence Edges Ithaca in Men's Tennis Regular-Season Finale

Jimmy Newton won in singles and doubles for the Bombers.

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca men's tennis team (15-4) concluded its regular season with a 5-4 loss to St. Lawrence (13-4) in a dual match Friday afternoon at the Ithaca College Tennis Courts.

The Bombers took an early lead by winning two of the three doubles matches. Freshman Jimmy Newton (Florida Virtual School/Englewood, Fla.) and junior Danny Wolk (The Field School/Potomac, Md.) started things off with an 8-1 win at second doubles. Senior Andrew Dunnick (Ithaca/Ithaca) and freshman Mike Muraco (Fayetteville-Manlius/Manlius) were 9-7 winners at third doubles.

St. Lawrence won the first two singles matches to take a brief 3-2 lead, but singles wins by Newton – 6-3, 6-4 at third singles – and sophomore Josh Rifkin (Homestead/Fort Wayne, Ind.), a 6-3, 6-1 winner at second singles, gave the Bombers a 4-3 lead.

The match was tied 4-4 and the sixth singles match was in the deciding third set when St. Lawrence won by injury default.

Ithaca returns to action May 2-3 at the Empire 8 Men's Tennis Championships in Rochester, hosted by St. John Fisher and Nazareth. The Bombers are the tournament's top seed after winning the regular-season title with a perfect 8-0 conference record. Ithaca will face Hartwick in the first round of the tournament.

Tennis Match Results
St. Lawrence vs Ithaca
04/24/09 at Ithaca, N.Y.

St. Lawrence 5, Ithaca 4

Singles competition
1. Jon Satkowski (SLU) def. Taylor BORDA (IC) 6-1, 6-1
2. Josh RIFKIN (IC) def. Pete Abernethy (SLU) 6-3, 6-1
3. Jimmy NEWTON (IC) def. Will Cook (SLU) 6-3, 6-4
4. Chris McDonald (SLU) def. Daniel WOLK (IC) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4)
5. Ren Gates (SLU) def. Mike MURACO (IC) 6-0, 1-0
6. Chris Rodilosso (SLU) def. Dan LEVINE (IC) 6-3, 2-6, 4-0, inj.

Doubles competition
1. Chris McDonald/Jon Satkowski (SLU) def. Taylor BORDA/Josh RIFKIN (IC) 8-6
2. Jimmy NEWTON/Daniel WOLK (IC) def. Jake Dexter/Ren Gates (SLU) 8-1
3. Andrew DUNNICK/Mike MURACO (IC) def. Chris Rodilosso/Christopher Tamm (SLU) 9-7

Team Records:
St. Lawrence 13-4
Ithaca 15-4

Order of finish: Doubles (2, 1, 3); Singles (5,1,3,2,4,6)