Tiger Men Stay Perfect With 5-4 Win Over Wilkes
The Wittenberg men’s tennis team defended a perfect record with the closest win of the season, a 5-4 defeat of Wilkes College. The Tigers improved to 7-0 with the victory.
HILTON HEAD, S.C. – The Wittenberg men's tennis team defended a perfect record with the closest win of the season, a 5-4 defeat of Wilkes College. The Tigers improved to 7-0 with the victory.
The tough competition was apparent immediately as the Tigers dropped their first doubles matchup of the year, but it was not for lack of effort. The No. 1 duo of senior Sergio Fishkin (Minsk, Belarus/Gymnasium 55) and sophomore Sasha Topolyanskiy (Moscow, Russia/School 712) fought Wilkes' Steven Wilson and Alex Makos to an 8-8 tie, but the opposition edged out a 7-4 win in the tiebreaker.
Junior Tyler Strong (Louisville, Ky./duPont Manual) and junior Sam Wilke (Cincinnati, Ohio/Turpin) grabbed a strong 8-1 win at the second position and sophomore Ian Streicker (South Lebanon, Ohio/Loveland) and junior Joe Marra (Great Falls, Mont./Great Falls) fought to an 8-3 win in the third spot to wrap up doubles competition.
The slight advantage in doubles proved all the difference as the singles result were split down the middle. Wittenberg took the 1-3 matchups and Wilkes won the 4-6 spots, but it came down to a tiebreaking set in each of the Wilkes wins.
Streicker cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 1 and Sasha Topolyanskiy won 6-4, 6-3 in No. 2. Sophomore Alexey Topolyanskiy (Moscow, Russia/School 712) finished off the Tigers' singles victories by scratching out a 6-4, 7-6 win on a 7-4 tiebreaker in the second set.
In spots four, five and six, Wilke, Strong and Marra, respectively, all took the first set 6-3, fell in the second set, and came within five points in the final tiebreaking competition.
The Tigers continue their Spring Break trip with two matches tomorrow, March 7, starting with Susquehanna at 8:30 a.m. and finishing with Emory & Henry at 6:30 p.m.
John Strawn '07