Marlins Defeat No. 15 Allegheny 5-4 in Hilton Head
HILTON HEAD, S.C. -- It took almost five hours playing on three courts for the Virginia Wesleyan College men's tennis team to knock off the Central Region's No. 15-ranked team, Allegheny College, on Tuesday morning at Chaplin Park on Hilton Head Island.
The Marlins started off the match trailing 2-1 after doubles. Allegheny claimed No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, 8-2 and 8-4 respectively. Drew Tomajczyk and Brenden Kelleher were able to take the No. 3 spot 8-4 giving the Marlins a glimmer of hope heading into singles.
Being down 2-1 after doubles, the Marlins would need to take four of the six singles matches to knock off the Gators. Striking first for the Marlins was No. 2 Kenny Downing with a 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (8) win. Soon thereafter sophomore Adam Rosemblaum claimed No. 3 singles 6-7, 6-3, 1-0 (8). Allegheny was able to earn points at No. 1 and No. 3 singles leaving the Gators up 4-3 with No. 5 and No. 6 singles in progress.
Down 3-4 the Marlins needed to secure both matches to claim victory. Finishing first with a 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (6) win was senior Tyler Chang at No. 6 singles. Chang used his powerful forehand down the stretch in the match tiebreaker to earn his point.
With the team tally 4-4 all eyes focused on No. 5 singles where Brendan Kelleher found himself down a set but up 5-2 in the second. After taking the second set 6-3, Kelleher opened up the match tiebreaker on a tear going up 8-0 before hitting a clean forehand winner up the line for 10-1 match tiebreaker win.
The Marlins were able to go 4-0 in three-set matches on the day; 7-0 in the last two matches combined.
"I was very proud of the guys today. Whether we won or lost this match we battled hard and fought the entire way," head coach Marty Perry said about the win over the ranked Gators. " We've been showing toughness down the stretch in singles and hopefully we can keep it going into our match with Carleton tomorrow."
Up next for the Marlins will be another Central Region team, No. 11 Carleton College from Northfield, MN. The match will be at noon on Wednesday at Hilton Head High School.
