Hofstra men’s tennis team started the season with a 5-2 dual match win at Sportime Syosset at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) Tuesday morning. 

Hofstra won all three of the doubles matches to earn the one point needed for the team score and won four of the six singles flights to claim four more points in the win. 

The Pride struck early in doubles with Coco Haener and Shawn Jackson sweeping Yago Granda and Raul Guillen 6-0. The duo of Jan Leithner and Marcus Smith sealed the one doubles point for Hofstra with a 6-3 win over Nicolas Castaldo and Maxton Cook. Ryan Hardin and Giacomo Pezzoli completed the double match sweep with a 6-4 victory over Francisco Caldas and Sergio Fernandez. 

Haener opened the singles flights with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Granda at flight three. Pezzoli kept things rolling for the Pride with a 6-2, 6-4 display over Kevin Huynh at flight five. After dropping the first set 6-7 (7-9), Marcus Smith stormed back in the final two sets 6-1, 6-3 to take down Nicolas Castaldo at flight one clinching the win for Hofstra. NYIT saw their first team point at flight two with Caldas defeating Leithner 7-6 (7-1), 6-3. The Pride would respond with a three-set win at flight four for Jackson over Fernandez 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. The match concluded at flight six with NYIT’s Guillen defeating Hardin 6-0, 6-2. 

With the loss, NYIT falls to 1-1 on the season. They will face ASA college on Tuesday, Oct. 16.  

For the Pride, the duo team of Haener and Jackson move to 5-0 with the win, adding to their previous 4-0 record from the Hofstra Invitational, where they won a doubles title. Jackson, a singles title holder from the Hofstra Invitational, moved to 5-0 in singles as well. 

 Hofstra, 1-0 on the season, prepares for the Farnsworth Invitational at Princeton University on Oct. 5. Smith, Leithner, Haener and Jackson will also be representing the Pride at the ITA All-American National Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Sept. 29. 

Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics