April 24, 2004

GENEVA, N.Y.—Hobart College and Skidmore College both advanced to the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Tennis Championship match this afternoon for the second consecutive season. The top-seeded Statesmen defeated St. Lawrence 5-2, in the second round, while the third-seeded Thoroughbreds downed No. 2 Vassar 5-2, for a chance to claim their second consecutive league title.

Receiving a bye into the second round as the top seed, Hobart (13-3) dropped two of the three doubles matches to fall behind the Saints (10-5), but the Statesmen rebounded with five wins in singles play for the victory. St. Lawrence moved on to play Hobart after downing No. 5 Rensselaer 7-0 earlier in the day.

Junior Peter Piné (Princeton/Princeton, N.J.), senior Trevor McAndrew (Northfield Mount Hermon/Westerly, R.I.), sophomore Adam Raffa (Concord-Carlisle/Concord, Mass.), first-year Matt Silver (Weston/Weston, Conn.), and junior Colman Currie (St. George’s School/London, England) were all victorious in their singles matches, while Currie and Raffa grabbed Hobart’s lone victory at second doubles.

In other tournament action, Vassar will meet the Saints in the third place match after breezing by No. 7 Clarkson in the opening match, but dropping a 5-2 decision to Skidmore in the second round.

Sixth-seeded Union opened the day with a 5-2 loss to the Thoroughbreds, but rebounded with an easy 7-0 blanking of the Golden Knights to capture a spot in the fifth place match with RPI.

Hobart and Skidmore will face off in a rematch of the 2003 UCAA title tilt, which the Thoroughbreds won 6-1, on April 25, at 11 a.m., at the HWS Tennis Center. The third place match and fifth place game are both scheduled to go off at 9 a.m., at the HWS Tennis Center and Bristol Field House, respectively.