Davis Elkins

Titas Bera

The College of Wooster men's tennis team concluded its Spring Trip out West with split decisions against St. Lawrence University and Sewanee in a Monday doubleheader at the Cheviot Hills Recreation Center in Los Angeles, Calif.

Wooster (5-9) opened the day with a convincing 7-2 win over St. Lawrence University (2-3). The Fighting Scots swept doubles action – all by an 8-4 count – before winning four of six singles matches.

At No. 2 doubles, junior Titas Bera and sophomore Jesse DeWitt were the first to conclude, followed by Andrew Long and Nathan Devereux at the No. 3 spot and senior duo Jack Buchan and Davis Elkins at No. 1.

Moving on to singles play, Buchan put up a fight with a comeback victory at No. 2, storming back from a set down (3-6), before claiming the second, 6-3, and the third-set super tiebreaker, 10-8. Bera (6-1, 6-3), Elkins (6-1, 6-2) and Devereux (6-0, 7-5) all claimed straight-set victories at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.

Devereux's victory marked the clinching point for the College.

Against Sewanee (10-2), the seventh-ranked team in the Atlantic South region, the Scots battled through the doubles slate, dropping all three – two of them coming by one break – before taking two points in the singles fight, with one against a regionally-ranked competitor.

In doubles, both Buchan and Elkins (6-8) and Bera and DeWitt (6-8) went down at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, while Long and Devereux lost 4-8 at No. 3.

In singles, Bera came away with an impressive three-set comeback victory at No. 1 over Andres Carro, the 23rd-ranked player in the region. The junior lost the first set, 3-6, before taking the second, 6-4, and the third-set tiebreaker, 10-8, as part of the last match standing.

Elkins tallied Wooster's other point from the No. 3 spot, as the senior defeated Sewanee's Hayden Loeb in a marathon third-set tiebreaker. Elkins won the opener, 6-1, before falling, 2-6, in the second set. Elkins pulled out the win, clinching the point in the third, 14-12.

Up next, Wooster hosts No. 34 Denison University (2-6) on Wednesday, March 29 at 4 p.m.