Tennis Results: Sept. 5
Grace Men 7, Bethel 0
The 2020 season could not have started better for Grace’s men’s tennis team. The Lancers swept the opener against Bethel 7-0 on Saturday.
Grace cruised through doubles’ play to start the match. Pavle Popovic and Jacob Gray were the closest match, winning 6-4 at No. 1 doubles. Max Rozas and Fabricio Galvan won 6-3 at No. 2 doubles, and Ramiro Candia and Mauricio Corty won 6-2 at No. 3.
The only battle in singles came at the top position. Max Rozas dropped the opening set but quickly rallied to claim the match 4-6, 6-1, 10-4.
The rest of the singles’ courts were won by Grace in straight sets, including Candia at No. 2 (6-2, 6-1), Galvan at No. 3 (6-2, 6-1), Popovic at No. 4 (6-1, 6-2), Corty at No. 5 (6-2, 6-1) and Kye Barrett at No. 6 (6-0, 6-2).
The Lancers return to action on Tuesday, traveling to play a doubleheader at Spring Arbor (against SAU and St. Francis).
Grace Women 5, Bethel 2
Grace’s women’s tennis team played a doubleheader on Saturday to officially open up the 2020-21 campaign.
The Lady Lancers began the day with an impressive 6-1 win over Bethel. Later in the day, Marian handed Grace a defeat by the score of 5-2 at Miller Athletic Complex.
The Crossroads League has arranged the schedule to be played in a series of doubleheaders, and Saturday was the first round of doubleheaders.
In the opener, Grace clinched the match in singles. Two freshmen (Ellie Hughes, Anna Graves) started their collegiate careers with wins. Hughes won 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 singles, and Graves won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 5.
Dayana Ortega (No. 3 singles), Morgan Mast (No. 4) and Kiersten Martin (No. 6) also picked up victories in singles.
All three duos were victorious in doubles’ play. Armstrong and Ortega battled to a 7-6 (3) win at the top doubles’ court, and Martin and Gretchen Adams teamed up to win 6-1 at No. 3.
Lauryn Riegsecker made her Grace debut with a win at No. 2 doubles, teaming up with Hughes to win 6-1.
Grace did not find as much success against Marian in the afternoon. The Knights gained an early edge by sweeping the doubles’ courts.
The singles’ matches were hotly contested, but Marian pulled out enough wins to grab the overall head-to-head victory.
Ortega did win 6-3, 7-6 at No. 3 singles, and Riegsecker won 7-6, 6-1 at No. 6.
The Lady Lancers will travel to Spring Arbor, Mich., on Tuesday for a doubleheader against St. Francis and Spring Arbor.
Fairfield 4, Wawasee 1
Westview 5, Wawasee 0
Jimtown 4, Wawasee 1
Teams from Fairfield, Westview and Jimtown made their way south to the Wawasee tennis courts Saturday afternoon to compete in the Wawasee Tennis Super Duals. In the end, the hosts found the going pretty rough, as they went 0-3 as a team on the day.
Wawasee mixed up their lineup in each of the three matches. Against Fairfield, Blaine Baut was the only victorious Warrior, dispatching his opponent 10-4 in the third set tiebreaker. Holden Babb and Grant Brooks each lost at one and three singles respectively, while the doubles pairings of Devon Kuhn/Zeke Keim and Ty Brooks/Nathan Harper also fell short in their matchups.
Against Westview, the Warriors found no joy on any of the five courts as Baut, Harper and Kuhn all dropped their singles matches in straight sets while the doubles pairings of Babb/Grant Brooks and Ty Brooks/Keim met the same fate.
Wawasee couldn’t find any relief against the boys from Baugo as they fell in four of the five matches to their guests from Jimtown. The one doubles pairing of Grant Brooks/Baut found the team’s only success, winning 6-2, 6-1. Babb, Keim and Harper played the singles courts, all falling in straight sets, as did the second doubles team of Ty Brooks/Kuhn.
The Warriors will return to NLC action on Tuesday when they host Goshen.