Wilkes Men's Tennis Stumbles in Semifinals
FREDERICKSBURG, VA – The Wilkes University men's tennis team returned to the court on Saturday for day two of the ITA Regionals. It was a tough day for the Colonels as they were eliminated in both semifinals matches.
The first match of the day had Chris Maderitz (York, PA/Central York) and Braddock Chow (Glen Cove, NY/Glen Cove) facing off against Patodia / Sweeney (Haverford). Wilkes got off to a slow start and trailed 2-4 early on in the eight-game pro-set match. They would get within one game, 3-4, before Haverford took the next four to eliminate Maderitz / Chow 8-4 from men's doubles Flight A competition.
Later in the morning, Courtney Murphy (Bronx, NY/Christopher Columbus) took the court for his singles Championship Flight round of 16 match against Downing (Carnegie Mellon). It was a tightly contested match with Murphy holding a 3-2 lead in the first set. The momentum changed in Downing's favor when he won a crucial game to tie the set at 3-3 after each player had a couple chances to capture the game by winning the next point. Murphy would fail to capitalize on other break point opportunities and eventually drop the first set 4-6.
Downing kept his foot on the gas in the second set and sailed to a 6-0 victory to eliminate Murphy 6-4, 6-0.
Maderitz returned to the court for his Flight B singles semifinal match where he would square off against Noah Sellinger (Muhlenberg). The Colonel would get off to a slow start and was unable to rebound, dropping the first set 2-6. It was a competitive second set before Maderitz fell 4-6 to be eliminated by Sellinger 6-2, 6-4.
In Flight A singles consolation play, Jonathan White (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley) would try to finish his regionals on a high note against Thomas Woodcock (Averett). After dropping the first set 5-7, White would battle to within 4-5 in the second set before losing by an identical 5-7 score to suffer a 5-7, 5-7 defeat.
Wilkes returns to action on Thursday October 4th when it welcomes Scranton to the Ralston Athletic Complex at 4:00 p.m.
