June 28, 2019 – Team RDUTennis opened their season with a big win over Team Mosquito Authority, but wins don’t come easy in the Raleigh Pro League. Rain threatened to halt the match early in the evening, but play continued as all players were determine to get their courts completed. Team Mosquito Authority pushed 3 courts into third-set tiebreaks and Team RDUTennis handled the challenges to sweep all 4 courts for the team victory and vault into 1st place in the league.
The Women’s court finished first as Team RDUTennis’ Tessie Choo and Macy Fisher played solid tennis to win over Team Mosquito Authority’s Fiona Degnan and Alix Theodossiou 6-2 6-0. Next off the court was the Men’s 1, where Team RDUTennis’ Jon Stokke and Cris James dominated the first set 6-2 only to see Team Mosquito’s Jas Schmitt and Brian Smith come back to take the second set 7-5 and force the third set tiebreak. Stokke/James regained the momentum and won the tiebreak 10-6 to put RDUTennis up 2 courts to 0.
Meanwhile, on the feature court of the night, the home crowd cheered for Hasentree’s Meghan Coomes as her and partner Sean Ferreira of Team Mosquito Authority battled it out with RDU’s Joanna Nalborska and Brian Rosenthal. Nalborska/Rosenthal took the first set 6-3, but Coomes/Ferreira came back strong to take the second 6-2 forcing the third set tiebreak. Nalborska/Rosenthal played tough and won the tiebreak 10-2 to seal the team victory for RDUTennis.
All attention turned to the Men’s 2 court where Team RDU’s Josh Franceschina and Phillip Faulkner won the first set 6-4 and were up in the second 5-2. Team Mosquito Authority’s Shaun Romisher and David Marquina grabbed the momentum and stormed back to take the second set 7-5 and force another third set tiebreak for the evening. The Skeeter’s jumped out to an early lead and looked like they would deny Team RDU the sweep when they went up 8-4 in the tiebreak. But Franceschina/Faulkner battled back and grabbed the momentum to win 11-9 and give Team RDUTennis top standing in the league.
Kudos to the enthusiastic Hasentree crowd who endured the early rain showers to cheer on all of the players. You were treated to some great tennis.