September 24, 2002

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Sophomore Peter Piné (Princeton/Princeton, N.J.) served his way to the Flight “A” title at the Rochester Invitational this past weekend. Competing at first singles for the Hobart College tennis team, Piné battled through a difficult three-set match, defeating John Nichols (Mount Lebanon/Pittsburgh, Pa.) of Mercyhurst 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Piné did not drop a set before reaching the finals, easily beating Jeff Sluker (Islip/Islip, N.Y.) of Ithaca 6-1, 6-1 in the first round, and disposing of Mercyhurst’s John Vadnal (Hudson/Hudson, Ohio) 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinal match. Piné remains undefeated in singles play for the Statesmen with a 6-0 record.

In doubles, Piné teamed up with first-year Matt Jacobus (South Burlington/South Burlington, Vt.) to beat Ithaca’s duo of Blair Watkins (Central Bucks East/Doylestown, Pa.) and Mike Medvin (Princeton/Princeton, N.J.) 8-3 in the first round. However, they were not quite good enough, losing in the semifinal round 8-3 to Nichols and Lucas Krasowski (Saugerties/Saugerties, N.Y.) of Mercyhurst. Piné and Jacobus finished the weekend with a 1-2 record, putting them both at 2-3 in doubles for 2002.

The Statesmen serve it up again on Sept. 27-29 at the ITA Regional Championships, at Vassar College.