BALTIMORE, Md. (March 19, 2011) – The Saint Francis University men's tennis team ran into some tough resistance at Morgan State on Saturday, coming away with a tough, 7-0, setback. Already competing with a roster depleted by injury and illness, the Red Flash also had a difficult time adjusting to windy conditions.

“It's been a struggle coming to these contests without much depth in the lineup,” said head coach Paul Tobin. “With Elhan Pogue and Matthew Jurjevich (London, Ontario/Niagara Academy of Tennis) out, I have to put my players in positions that I know are difficult.”

“Until we're competing with a full roster, we have to do our best to pull out wins in doubles which will help take some of the pressure off of singles play.”

After Andres Rosa (Carolina, Puerto Rico/Colegio la Piedad) and Stephen Kowalski (Toms River, NJ/Toms River East) fell at the No. 1 doubles spot, Nathaniel Fleming and Youlian Natchev (Sofia, Bulgaria/Rovel College) rebounded to pick up Saint Francis' only victory of the day, 8-6, at the No. 2 spot.

The Flash were force to concede both No.3 double and No. 6 singles.

Rosa, Fleming and Kowalski made the Nos. 1-3 singles spots highly competitive – with Fleming even forcing a tie-breaker with his No. 2 racquet. All three, however, would fall to their Bear competitors as Morgan State went on to sweep singles play.

"This was a disappointing loss but we just have to work harder and try to stay healthy. Going into these matches already down 2 points makes us have to sweep 4 in a row. That's hard to do when our lineup is difficult to define"



Morgan State 7, Saint Francis 0
Doubles
1. Charles/Ward (MSU) def. Rosa/Kowalski (SFU), 8-3
2. Fleming/Natchev (SFU) def. Chevkhlatyy/Benjamin (MSU), 8-6
3. Morgan State by default

Singles
1. Ward (MSU) def. Rosa (SFU), 6-5, 6-3
2. Charles (MSU) def. Fleming (SFU), 3-6, 7-6 (7-3)
3. Checkhlatyy (MSU) def. Kowalski (SFU), 6-4, 6-3
4. Benjamin (MSU) def. Natchev (SFU), 6-1, 6-3
5. Thomas (MSU) def. Mendez (SFU), 6-0, 6-0
6. Morgan State by default