Men's Tennis Opens Spring Season against Frankin & Marshall
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The VWC men's tennis team kicked off its 2016 spring season on Sunday against No. 16 regionally-ranked Franklin & Marshall College on a warm afternoon at the Everett Tennis Center. F&M came into the match with a 0-1 mark stemming from an 8-1 loss to CNU on Saturday. Sunday marked the first of many ranked non-conference contests for the Marlins this season.
F&M drew first blood by taking No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, both 8-2. Down 0-2 with the Marlins in danger of being in a challenging 0-3 hole, the focus shifted to senior standout Graham Wilson and sophomore Adam Rosemblaum. On serve late in the set against ranked singles player Doug Kaplan and partner Jack Rothman, the Marlin duo broke serve at 6-5 giving Rosemblaum a chance to serve for the match at 7-5. Bombing first serve after first serve, Rosemblaum and Wilson held on for a quick game to give them an 8-5 victory and keeping the Marlins alive and down 2-1 heading into singles.
In singles, F&M jumped out to another lead by taking four of six first sets. At No. 3 singles, Marlin junior Kenny Downing made quick work of his opponent taking his point 6-1, 6-2 evening the team match score to 2-2. F&M jumped back out to another lead when Freshman Zack Levin took down Adam Rosemblaum 6-4, 6-3. Soon after F&M claimed No. 6 singles when Junior Inigo Flores held on to a closely contested second set to take down Marlin senior Tyler Chang 6-3, 7-5. With the Diplomats up 4-2, senior team captain Drew Tomajczyk won a hard-fought battle at No. 4 singles over freshman Giovanni Corrado 7-6 (6), 7-5 cutting into F&M's team score lead. With the match at 4-3, Marlin senior Spenser Bullock fought back from dropping the first set to clinch the team's 4th point 2-6, 6-2, 7-5.
For the second time today all eyes shift to Wilson on Court One. Wilson dropped the first set 6-1 but battled back to win the second 6-4. Wilson was down 0-3 in the third when Bullock clinched his point at No. 5 singles. After a hard fought third set, Kaplan held on for a 6-2 victory giving the Diplomats a hard fought 5-4 match victory. "We did a good job of staying tough and competing today. Starting out the season against a quality team such as Franklin & Marshall is a challenge. Moving forward the experience will make us tougher, getting us ready for spring break and ODAC competition", said head coach Marty Perry.
Up next for the Marlins is the ODAC season opener against Guilford on Sunday March 6th at the Everett Tennis Center.
