The Virginia Wesleyan men's tennis team (9-9, 7-3 ODAC) emerged victorious over No. 67 Randolph College 4-3 to conclude regular season play. This marks the second win of the season for the Marlin squad against a nationally ranked opponent as their first came against Hampden-Sydney.
Francis Cabaddu,
Sainandan Challagundla,
Jan Puvill,
Carlos Rullan Zarraga, and
Rafael Rullan Zarraga were honored in celebration of Senior Day.
Sainandan Challagundla and
Tudor Vlad picked up a 6-4 win at the third spot in doubles; but Randolph won at the top spot to leave court two to decide the doubles point. The Rullan Zarraga twin duo came up short 6-4 to give Randolph the 1-0 lead.
Sebastien Muller was efficient in singles play at #4, dominating Carlos Haupt 6-1, 6-1 to tie the score at 1-1 overall.
At the #2 spot, Randolph's Jacob Martin pulled through in a three setter over
Rafael Rullan Zarraga to take the lead 2-1; but
Hovo Madanyan eased to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jason Duval at the fifth spot to level the match at 2-2.
Next to finish was
Tudor Vlad at #1 singles, who won his first set in a tiebreaker against Andreas Mulner but came up short 7-5, 6-2 in the second and third sets.
With the WildCats ahead 3-2 and just a match away from clinching,
Francis Cabaddu found himself a set down at #3. Cabaddu recovered from the first set loss and seized the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 over Vincenzo Marchese to tie the match at 3-3.
The deciding match came down to
Carlos Rullan Zarraga at #6, who capitalized his home court advantage on Senior Day and won convincingly 6-4, 6-2.
The Marlins are set to compete in the ODAC Quarterfinals on Wednesday, April 30.
