WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - David Sherwood
(Little Egg Harbor, N.J./Pinelands) battled off two set points and won
four-straight points in the second-set tiebreaker to clinch the #3 Monmouth
University men's tennis team's upset of second-seeded Quinnipiac, Saturday
morning at Mercer County Park. With the win, the Hawks (8-11, 5-3 NEC) move to
Sunday's NEC Championship Match at 10 a.m., when they'll face top-seeded
Fairleigh Dickinson. Quinnipiac ends its season at 8-11 (4-3 NEC).
The Hawks
have reached the NEC Championship Match two prior times under sixth-year Head
Coach Mickey Cook in 2007 and 2009. Monmouth fell to Fairleigh Dickinson in the
first championship match, before falling to Sacred Heart in 2009.
The Bobcats
took the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead. Following Sherwood and Laurence
Heads' (Stockton-on-Tees, England/Repton School) 8-0 win at No. 2 doubles,
Quinnipiac's Alex Lazerowich and Chris Nelson pulled out an 8-6 victory over
Carl Jedlinski (Manalapan, N.J./Freehold Township) and Jason Rothstein (Pine
Brook, N.J.) at No. 3 to even the score. Andrew Weeden and James Kwei then
clinched the doubles point with an 8-5 victory over Freddy Marcinkowski
(Sparta, N.J./Sparta) and Francis Jedlinski (Manalapan, N.J./Freehold Township)
at No. 1.
The Hawks
came out on fire in singles, winning the first three matches to finish. Carl
Jedlinski made quick work of Corey Morgenstern, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 4 to even the
score, before Heads defeated Garrett Lane, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 3 and Marcinkowski
got past Weeden, 6-4, 6-1, at No. 1 to put the Hawks on top, 3-1.
Kwei scored
a 6-3, 7-6 (4), victory over Francis Jedlinski at No. 2 to cut the deficit to
3-2. After Sherwood won the first set against Eric Ambrosio, 6-2, and was
serving for the match up 6-5 at No. 5, Ambrosio broke serve and forced a
tiebreaker. Ambrosio then took a 6-4 lead in the tiebreaker, just a point away
from forcing a third set. But Sherwood won four-straight points to win the set,
the individual match, and the team decision for the Hawks.
After
splitting the first two sets, Rothstein led John Petrini, 4-1, in the third set
when the No. 6 match was halted.
