LOUDONVILLE, NY – The reigning Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Men's Tennis Champion Siena Saints solidified its' newest infusion of talent for the 2023-24 season with a total of six student-athletes including four transfers and two freshmen onto the squad.
 
The diverse recruiting class features St. Francis (PA) transfer Fabio Varella, a pair of transfers from Marquette in Elijah Zifferblatt and Zino Varouhas-Poole as well as Shawnee State (OH) transfer Duarte Melo and two freshmen in Oscar Martinez and Dylan Breen. 

The Saints are coming off a season in which it won 13 games and secured its' first MAAC Men's Tennis title and NCAA Tournament berth.  
 
Varalla served as the #1 singles and #1 doubles player on the Red Flash in parts of the prior two seasons and picked up signature victories against competition from St. Francis Brooklyn, Xavier and St. Bonaventure. He combined to have 16 singles wins and 17 doubles wins during his tenure.
 
A native of São Paulo, Brazil, he graduated from Colégio Mater dei High School and was the 16s South American champion at Paraguay, 16s Brazilian champion and 18s Brazilian champion at both the singles and doubles level. 
 
Both Marquette transfers have had valuable playing experience in the fall seasons. Zifferblatt took a medical redshirt in 2022-23, but earned six victories overall and held a mark of 3-3 from the singles #6 position with a signature victory coming against Wisconsin in his collegiate debut as well as a win versus Drake. 
 
No stranger to top accolades, Zifferblatt was a three-time Most Valuable Player and First Team All-Conference player with West De Pere High School in his native town of De Pere, Wisconsin.  He was a two-time captain, Rookie of the Year and earned honor roll recognition for all four years. 
 
As a freshman, Varouhas-Poole jumped directly into the action and won in his debut at the Drake Invitational.  The native of Wellington, New Zealand, saw all of his action in the fall portion of the campaign and earned a record of 4-2 in overall singles play. 
 
At the high school level, he was a three-year letterwinner at Wellington College and a member of the Wellington championship teams in 2020 and 2021.  Varouhas-Poole served as team captain of the national runner-up team his senior year.  He also earned one half of the 2020 New Zealand Indoor U16 Doubles Championship and 2020 New Zealand National Doubles Championship.  He gained a world U18 ITF ranking high of 386 in January of 2022 and was selected onto the U18 New Zealand team for Oceania's closed ITF championship. 
 
Melo, a Division II transfer from Shawnee State (OH), has won national tournaments in the open category and earned Second Team All-Conference honors in the Mid-South Conference.  He also earned his team's lone victory in the Mid-South Conference Opening Round match versus Tennessee Southern at the singles #1 position.  A native of Cruz Quebrada, Lisbon, Portugal, Melo graduated high school from escola secundária de Miraflores.
 
Martinez achieved a high ITR ranking of #291 in April of 2023 and held his highest UTR of 11.18 at the singles level and 11.39 at the doubles mark.  He's been ranked #1 in his native Venezuela in all categories and reached his apex peak among South American countries of #2 at the 14-under level and #10 at the 16-under age group. 
 
The native of La Guaira has represented his country on four occasions in the Junior Davis Cup in the 12U level in Peru in 2018, at the 14U level in Colombia in 2019 and in the 16U level in Paraguay in 2021 and in Argentina in 2022.  Additionally, he's been a two-time singles champion at the Grade 1 COSAT Caracus Junior Open, four-time champ at the Grade 1 COSAT Valencia Junior Open, singles champion at the Grade 3 COSAT Barquisimeto Junior Open and was a doubles finalist in both the Grade 3 COSAT Cali and COSAT Bogota events. 
 
Breen prepped at the prestigious Montverde Tennis Academy in Florida after establishing himself as the #2 nationally-ranked U18 junior in his native Ireland. 
 
Previously, Breen represented his country at the European championships in Switzerland and won an ITF doubles title in Belfast.