Rivera Repeats as GNAC Player and Rookie of the Week
WINTHROP, Mass. - Freshman Noah Rivera (Armonk, N.Y.) of the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) men's tennis team continued his dominating start to spring, being named both the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Player and Rookie of the Week for the second consecutive week, it was announced on Monday afternoon by the conference front office in its third weekly report of the 2023 season. It marks the second GNAC weekly honors in men's tennis program history as the Blue Jays are in the midst of their inaugural varsity season in 2022-23.
Rivera helped lead the Blue Jays to a pair of shutout victories, running their win streak to three straight games. Rivera earned a pair of victories from the No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles position last week as USJ swept University of Southern Maine (USM), 9-0, on the road on Wednesday before blanking Thomas College, 9-0, at home on Friday. The rookie teamed up with classmate classmate Ryan Boucher (Bedford, N.H.) for both of his doubles matches on the week, taking down USM's No. 1 tandem, 8-1, and Thomas' top doubles team, 8-5.
In singles play, Rivera defeated USM's No. 1 player Zach Desmarais in straight sets 6-2, 6-0 before going toe-to-toe with Thomas' No. 1 Nicolas Arenas. After dropping the opening set, Rivera battled back to win in thrilling fashion in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 7-6. With the victories, Rivera improved to 6-2 in singles action and 5-1 in doubles play with Boucher on the year.
UP NEXT
Rivera and the Blue Jays return back to the courts on Tuesday, March 21 for a midweek match at home against non-conference opponent UMass-Boston. First serve between the Blue Jays and Beacons is set for 3:00 p.m. at the Elizabeth Ferry Speer Tennis Complex in West Hartford, Conn.
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