CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Kenyon's attempt at defending its 2013 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Indoor Championship fell apart in Friday's opening round of the 2014 Championship. Paired against the No. 13 Case Western Reserve, the No. 5-ranked Lords dropped a 5-4 decision during play at the Mayfield Village Racquet Club.
Kenyon (3-1) fell behind 2-1 in doubles play. The team's No. 2 combo of Michael Razumovsky and Wade Heerboth pulled out the Lords' lone doubles win with an 8-6 decision against Will Drougas and John Healey. Razumovsky, who is dealing with a back injury, didn't have enough gas left in the tank to carry to singles play and ended up dropping a 6-2, 6-2 top-flight match to Christopher Krimbill.
The Lords, now trailing 3-1, forged ahead to square things up on the scoreboard with wins at No. 2 singles and at No. 3 singles. Heerboth, a junior, topped Drougas 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2, while sophomore Sam Geier pulled out an epic comeback at No. 3, defeating Eric Klawitter 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
The rally for Kenyon was short lived. Case's James Fojtasek held on for a 7-5, 7-5 victory against junior Tim Rosensteel and Derek Reinbold provided the clinching team point with a 6-2, 7-6 win against Jacob Huber, also a Kenyon junior.
The loss dropped Kenyon into the consolation bracket.
No. 4 Washington (Mo.) 8, Redlands 1
MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio -- Washington (Mo.) posted an 8-1 victory against Redlands in the opening round of the 2014 ITA Division III National Menâs Tennis Indoor Championship Friday afternoon.
No. 8 Trinity (Texas), No. 7 Cal Lutheran
MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio -- Trinity (Texas) opened the Indoor Championship on Friday with a 7-2 victory against Cal Lutheran.
Trinity (7-2), which won its fourth match in a row, takes on top-seed Washington (Mo.) at 2:00 p.m. ET Saturday in the semifinals at Case Western Reserve.
Tiger junior Jordan Mayer clinched the deciding dual-match point for the fourth time this season. Mayer, undefeated at 7-0, won No. 5 singles by a 6-1, 6-0 score.
The match began with Trinity taking a 2-1 lead after doubles. Paxton Deuel and Nico Moreno were edged 9-8 in the No. 1 match. But Greg Haugen and Mayer took the No. 2 slot 8-4, while Chas Mayer and Clayton Niess won the No. 3 line 8-5.
Deuel was a 6-1, 6-3 winner at No. 1 singles, and Haugen captured the No. 3 match 6-0, 6-4. Moreno won a 7-6, 7-6 tiebreaker battle at No. 4 singles, and Connor Dunn prevailed 7-6, 6-3 at No. 6. Aaron Skinner lost 2-6, 6-4, 10-3 (tiebreaker) at No. 2 singles.
No. 10 Johns Hopkins 6, No. 6 Emory 3
MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio -- Johns Hopkins opened the spring season on a strong note with a 6-3 win against Emory in the opening round of the 2014 ITA National Team Indoor Championship. The Blue Jays (1-1) earn their first win in five meetings against the Eagles (2-2) and advance to the semifinals for the first time in four appearances at the championship.
Hopkins jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the match by sweeping the doubles. Juniors Tanner Brown and Erik Lim earned an 8-2 win against Jackson Isaacs and Nick Szczurek at second doubles. Freshmen Michael Buxbaum and Emerson Walsh pushed the lead to 2-0 as they defeated Ian Wagner and Rafe Mosetick 8-6 at first. Wagner won the NCAA Division III Doubles Championship last year. Sophomore Nicholas Garcia and junior Noah Joachim completed the doubles sweep as they won 8-3 at third against Eric Halpern and Alex Ruderman.
Brown earned a consecutive sets win at second singles to stake Hopkins to a 4-0 lead. He beat Mosetick 6-3, 6-3 to earn his 40th career singles win. Halpern earned the Eagles' first point of the match with a win at third. Junior Ben Hwang won the first set 7-6, but Halpern rallied to win the second 7-5 and then the third 6-4. Ruderman pulled Emory within two points with a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win against Buxbaum at first. Freshman Jeremy Dubin then clinched the win at fourth singles. He won the first set 6-2, but Szczurek bounced back to take the second 6-3. Dubin responded with a 6-4 in the third set to pick up Hopkins' fifth point of the match. Wagner then made it a 5-3 match with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Lim at fifth. Junior Sam Weissler closed out the win for the Blue Jays with a come-from-behind win at sixth. He dropped the first set 6-3 to Will Adams but rallied to win the second 6-1 before winning a super tiebreaker in the third.
