April 18, 2008

The #10 seeded Patriots took on the #7 seed Delaware in the first round of the CAA championships in Newport News, Va. on Thursday afternoon and came up on the short end of a 4-0 decision.

Mason began the day with double play where they came up winless. The top four singles players paired up and were the only four to finish their doubles matches as Stas Budagov and Harwood Hoskins were the first to fall 8-4 followed by Brian Fitzgerald and Dan Schneider 8-2. The duo of Budagov and Hoskins fell down into a deficit early, but managed to make a comeback to take the lead 3-2 after five games. Unfortunately for the No.3 doubles pair they would only take one more point the rest of the match. Jordan Lipstock and Matt Vaughn were at the No.2 doubles, but received a DNF (did not finish) for their match as the doubles point had been decided.

Singles began with Mason facing a 1-0 deficit and after losses from Schneider, Lipstock, and Martin Brown the match was over. Fitzgerald, Budagov, and Hoskins all received DNF's for their matches. Both Budagov and Hoskins were down a set and close to losing, but Fitzgerald had dropped the first set 6-4 after falling down 4-1 at one point and was up in the second set 4-0.

With the doubles match lost by Fitzgerald and Schneider, Schneider moved to 14-11 on the season and one shy of getting 15 wins for the first time in doubles since Simon Targett did it in the 97-98 season. Fitzgerald also had a record day taken away as he finishes 13-5 on the spring with two DNF's on the season, leaving him tied for third place in wins in the spring, tied for third in spring win percentage with .722, and tied for 12th for most wins in a season with 17.

Doubles: No.1 - Longacre/Greenberg (UD) def. Fitzgerald/Schneider (MAS) 8-2 No.2 - Lipstock/Vaughn (MAS) vs. Barrer/Perez (UD) 6-3 DNF No.3 - Hinker/Schwartz (UD) def. Budagov/Hoskins (MAS) 8-4

Singles: No.1 - Brian Fitzgerald (MAS) vs. Longacre (UD) 4-6, 4-0 DNF No.2 - Stas Budagov (MAS) vs. Greenberg (UD) 2-6, 0-1 DNF No.3 - Barrer (UD) def. Dan Schneider (MAS) 6-0, 6-0 No.4 - Harwood Hoskins (MAS) vs. Hinker (UD) 2-6, 0-5 DNF No.5 - Schwartz (UD) def. Jordan Lipstock (MAS) 6-2, 6-0 No.6 - Perez (UD) def. Martin Brown (MAS) 6-0, 6-0