Wilkes Men's Tennis Wins Three Doubles Titles at MAC Championships
WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes men's tennis team captured three doubles titles during a long first day of the Middle Atlantic Conference Individual Championships on Saturday at the Ralston Athletic Complex, Kirby Park Courts and Kingston Indoor Tennis Club.
In the No. 1 doubles flight, the Colonels No. 1 seeded team of Courtney Murphy (Bronx, NY/Christopher Columbus) and Jonathan White (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley) began their day by defeating a duo from DeSales 8-4 in the quarterfinal round. Next, they would eliminate the No. 4 seeded Lebanon Valley pairing 8-3 to advance to the finals. Standing in their way of a title was a team from King's who Wilkes doubled up 8-4 to win the title.
In the No. 2 doubles flight, the Colonels pairing of Braddock Chow (Glen Cove, NY/Glen Cove) and Andrew MacDonald (Bridgeton, NJ/Cumberland Regional) made quick work of FDU-Florham in the quarterfinals 8-0 before dispatching Messiah 8-4 to advance to the finals. In the championship, Wilkes outlasted Stevenson 8-7 (8-6) to secure the title.
Chris Maderitz (York, PA/Central York) and Mike Ellis (Phoenixville, PA/Phoenixville) represented Wilkes in the No. 3 doubles flight and had little trouble with FDU-Florham in the quarterfinal round, eliminating them 8-1 before beating Stevenson 8-4 to advance to the finals. The Colonels duo beat Lebanon Valley 8-5 to win Wilkes their third doubles title of the day.
Isaac Shenton (Saint Thomas, PA/James Buchanan) and Matt Angara (Stewartsville, NJ/Phillipsburg) started No. 4 doubles action by defeating Manhattanville 8-4.
In the semifinal round, Wilkes prevailed in a tightly contested match against DeSales 8-7 (7-3) to advance to the finals before ultimately falling to Stevenson 8-3.
Due to on and off showers on Saturday, only a limited amount of singles matches were played in order to crown all doubles champions by the end of the day. Since Wilkes players had first round byes in the No. 1 – No. 5 singles flights, those individuals did not have to play on Saturday and will begin quarterfinal action on Sunday.
In the No. 6 singles flight, Alec Levin (Cape May, NJ/Lower Cape May) won the first set of his quarterfinal match 6-1 before dropping the next two sets 3-6, 11-13 to be eliminated by Arcadia. Colin Greenman (Glen Gardner, NJ/Voorhees) won his No. 7 singles quarterfinal match 6-4, 6-2 over Stevenson and will take on DeSales in the semifinals on Sunday.
Quarterfinals singles actions for flights 1-5 gets underway at 9:00 am Sunday, followed by semifinals and finals singles play for all seven flights.
