Wilkes Men's Tennis Beats Manhattanville in Home Opener
EDWARDSVILLE, PA – The Wilkes University men's tennis team had to wait a couple extra weeks for their home opener at the Ralston Athletic Complex but didn't disappoint as they knocked off Manhattanville 8-1 on Saturday afternoon in a Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) match.
The win improves the Colonels to 6-4 overall and 2-0 in the MAC Freedom.
Wilkes started off the match by sweeping doubles play which began with #3 Chris Maderitz (York, PA/Central York) and Jonathan White (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley) making quick work of their opponents 8-2. #2 Braddock Chow (Glen Cove, NY/Glen Cove) and Mike Ellis (Phoenixville, PA/Phoenixville) followed that by doubling up Manhattanville 8-4. That left it to the match of the day as #1 Courtney Murphy (Bronx, NY/Christopher Columbus) and Andrew MacDonald (Bridgeton, NJ/Cumberland Regional) defeated the Valiants duo in a tiebreaker 8-7 (7-2) to give the Colonels a 3-0 lead heading into singles play.
#1 Murphy continued his strong individuals play as he breezed to a 6-1, 6-2 win that was quickly followed by #4 Larry Scartz's (Woodbridge, VA/Home School) 6-0, 6-1 victory to clinch the match for the navy and gold.
#5 Colin Greenman (Glen Gardner, NJ/Voorhees) returned to the lineup and got back in the win column as he won in straight sets 6-1, 6-3. Maderitz picked up his second consecutive win in the #2 spot as he bested his opponent by identical 6-2, 6-2 scores.
White dropped the first set of his #3 singles match 4-6 but bounced back to win the second 6-1 and force a super breaker. Unfortunately, his opponent answered by taking the super breaker 10-7 to defeat White 6-4, 1-6, 1-0 (10-7).
#6 Alec Levin (Cape May, NJ/Lower Cape May) earned his second straight win after taking a hard fought first set 7-6 (7-2) before cruising to a 6-1 second set victory to cap off the match for the Colonels.
Wilkes returns to the courts at the Ralston Athletic Complex on Wednesday, April 10th when it welcomes Misericordia for a 3:30 p.m. match.
