Northeast-10 Champion Men's Tennis Places Five On All-Conference Team
April 27, 2008
BRYANT MEN'S TENNIS PLACES FIVE ON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
SOUTH EASTON, Mass - The Bryant University men's tennis team
placed five players on the 2008 Northeast-10 All-Conference team
released Sunday morning. Freshman standout Cristian
Balestrieri (Mar Del Plata, Argentina)
swept the major honors, winning both NE-10 Player of the Year and
Freshman of the Year honors as well as earning first team
all-conference at No. 1 singles. Junior Jose Rodriguez
(Trujillo, Peru) was named first team all-conference at
No. 2 singles and Thomas Novak (Medfield, MA) was
named first team all-conference at No. 4 singles.
Balestrieri posted a perfect 10-0 record in the Northeast-10 Conference this season at No. 1 singles while Rodriguez and Novak both went 9-0 at No. 2 and No. 4 respectively.
Kevin Gardiner (Power Springs, GA) was named second team all-conference at No. 5 with Craig Drushella (Harwich, MA) earning second team No. 6 singles.
The lone doubles tandem of Nowak and Rodriguez earned all-conference honors at No. 2 doubles. Bryant's top tandem of Balistrieri and Gardiner failed to garner an honor despite winning every doubles match in conference play this season and ranked No. 5 in the region.
Bryant, 20-3 this season and ranked No. 3 in the region and No. 45 nationally, captured their first conference championship since 1994 Sunday with a 5-0 blanking of Stonehill College. The Bulldogs won their first regular season title since 1996 under second year coach Ron Gendron.
Merrimack Coach Chris Stevens was voted by the league coaches as the Coach of the Year after leading the Warriors to a 10-6 season with conference losses to Bryant and Stonehill.
