Men's Tennis Take Down No. 25 Washington and Lee
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The Virginia Wesleyan College men's tennis team made history today by defeating Washington and Lee University, the No. 25 ranked team in the nation. The win marked the first win against W&L in school history and is the first ODAC loss for the Generals since the 2009 conference final when they fell to Hampden-Sydney.
The Marlins came out strong in doubles claiming early leads at No. 2 and No. 3. VWC drew first blood when seniors Drew Tomajczyk and Spencer Bullock handled W&L's Joe Saimi and Michael Lukas 8-2 at No. 3. Minutes later, senior Tyler Chang and junior Kenny Downing handed W&L's Thomas Johnson and Zack Ely an 8-2 defeat at No. 2 putting the Marlins up 2-0. At No. 1 doubles, senior Graham Wilson and sophomore Adam Rosemblaum came up short and dropped the set 8-4 making the team score 2-1 heading into singles.
Singles started evenly as each team took three first sets. First off the court was the Marlin's Tyler Chang where he rolled over W&L's Joe Siami 6-1, 6-0. With the Marlins up 3-1 the Generals struck back by taking No. 2 singles 6-3, 6-4. The Generals didn't stop there and evened up the team score by taking No. 6 singles 6-2, 6-2. With the match even at 3-3 senior Graham Wilson pulled out a hard fought win at No. 1 singles over Jordan Krasner 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.
With the Marlins up 4-3 all eyes moved to No. 3 and No. 4 singles where Adam Rosemblaum and Drew Tomajczyk were fighting for every point in attempt to make history. Rosemblaum was in a third set when Tomajczyk pulled out a marathon two-set match clinching win over Zack Ely, 7-6 (4), 6-4. As the team stormed the court to congratulate Tomajczyk, Rosemblaum continued to battle to earn his singles point. Both players appeared to be physically exhausted, however, it was W&L's Will Banister who ended up pulling out #3 singles 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (4).
"The guys were really on point today. We had great energy throughout the doubles and found a way to sustain it all the way through. I'm really happy for the guys, especially the seniors.", said head coach Marty Perry.
With the win the Marlins improve to 13-5 on the season. It's their second win against a regionally ranked team this season and their first win against a nationally ranked team in recent memory. Up next will be a home match Wednesday against Lynchburg College. Match time will be at 3:30.
