Marlins Fall to Generals in ODAC Championship
LEXINGTON, Va. -- The Virginia Wesleyan College men's tennis team fell to host Washington and Lee University 5-2 in the ODAC championship on Sunday afternoon. VWC came into the tournament as the No. 1 seed for the first time in tournament history.
In doubles action, W&L came out strong breaking serve early at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. Meanwhile junior Kenny Downing and senior Tyler Chang went up two breaks of serve at No. 2 and held on for an 8-4 win putting the Marlins up 1-0. At No. 3, seniors Drew Tomajczyk and Spenser Bullock fell behind 1-4 early but fought back to even the match at 7-7 before falling to Lukas and Siami 9-7. At No. 1 doubles, senior Graham Wilson and sophomore Adam Rosemblaum fell behind 3-0 early before trading breaks with W&L's team of Krasner and Bannister. W&L held on to a late break of serve to claim the No. 1 doubles match 8-5, putting W&L up 2-1 before heading into singles.
In singles, W&L came out strong claiming four of six first sets. VWC was able to take first sets at No. 1 and No. 3 singles.
W&L struck first in singles by taking No. 4 singles 6-1, 6-2. With the Generals up 3-1, W&L's Thomas Johnson outlasted VWC's Kenny Downing 6-4, 6-4. VWC fought back when Graham Wilson took out Jordan Krasner 7-5, 6-2. With the match score 4-2, both No. 3 and No. 5 singles were in third sets. Meanwhile at No. 6 VWC's Tyler Chang was down a set but was up 5-1 in the second set tiebreaker when the Generals claimed their match clinching point at No. 5 singles with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 win over VWC's Brenden Kelleher.
"W&L came out with very high energy in doubles and we were able to fight back and have a shot in each match. W&L outplayed us today but I'm very proud of how we fought through adversity," said head coach Marty Perry on his team's performance in Sunday's final.
This marks the 35th ODAC championship for W&L and their seventh straight. W&L improves to 15-8 while the Marlins finish the season at 17-7 with a perfect 10-0 mark in ODAC action.
