HAMILTON – The Colgate men's tennis team earned a dominating sweep of the La Salle Explorers Saturday afternoon as part of the Raiders first annual Children's Heart Awareness match in honor of head coach Bobby Pennington's son, Clifford.
 
As part of the match, the Raiders raised money for the Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong Hospital in Rochester, New York where Clifford had surgery and cared for following surgery as well as wearing red Colgate Tennis T-Shirts.
 
The Raiders showed a lot of grit as they battled all match long to secure their fourth win of the season in front of a big crowd in Sanford Field House. Pennington, in his 11^th season as head coach, led the Raiders in his 200^th match with the men's tennis program.
 
Four different Raiders won two matches Saturday afternoon, led by Jacob Hirschberg (Westport, Connecticut) at No. 2 Doubles and No. 2 singles.
 
Colgate once again was in a tightly contested battle for the doubles point with all three matches finishing with 6-3 scores. The Raiders dropped No. 1 Doubles but managed to secure the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3.
 
Singles was a different story as the Raiders had just one match go to three sets as their swept their way through to earn six singles wins. Alec Dardis (Laguna Niguel, California) remains unbeaten in five singles matches this season for the Raiders.
 
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 7, La Salle 0
 
WON-LOST RECORDS
The Raiders returned to the win column to improve to 4-1 this season while the Explorers dropped to 3-7 with their fifth loss in the last six matches.
 
DOUBLES
No. 1 – Mowrey/Christian (La Salle) def. Daugherty/Rosenblat ('Gate): 6-3
No. 2 –Hirschberg/Reynolds ('Gate) def. Balico/DiOrio (La Salle): 6-3
No. 3 –Alter/Koman ('Gate) def. Ward/Pascual (La Salle): 6-3
 
SINGLES
No. 1 – Daugherty ('Gate) def. Mowrey (La Salle): 7-6, 6-4
No. 2 – Hirschberg ('Gate) def. Balico (La Salle): 6-1, 6-2
No. 3 – Rosenblat ('Gate) def. DiOrio (La Salle): 6-0, 6-2
No. 4 – Alter ('Gate) def. Christian (La Salle): 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
No. 5 – Reynolds ('Gate) def. Pascual (La Salle): 8-5
No. 6 – Dardis ('Gate) def. Ward (La Salle): 8-1
 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Bobby Pennington
"Today was a very special, beautiful day for many reasons. First off, to raise awareness for congenital heart defects. It was an amazing crowd and show of support from our fans to our team and Clifford. Credit to our guys for starting the year an impressive 4-1, setting the tone early in doubles and carrying it through to singles. We have a tough test tomorrow against a Cornell team that is No. 24 in the country. We will be fired up."
 
UP NEXT
The Raiders travel to Ithaca Sunday afternoon to take on the nationally ranked No. 24 Cornell Big Red at 4 p.m.