Men’s Tennis Loses Heartbreaker in Quarterfinals
Scots Narrowly Fall to Wabash in Opening Match
GRANVILLE – The College of Wooster men's tennis team concluded its season as it was on the wrong end of one of its closest matches to date and was unfortunately eliminated from the 2024 North Coast Athletic Conference Championships.
No. 4 Wabash College defeated No. 5 Wooster 5-4 in the quarterfinals on Friday.
The match got underway, just like the regular season meetup where the Scots took only the No. 2 doubles flight.
On Friday, the No. 2 team of Shivam Dewan and Arnav Yadav won 8-5. In the No. 1 doubles flight, Jay Dixit and Namit Misra fell 8-2, while the No. 3 team of Anthony VanOyen and Bennett Dickerson lost 8-4, not being able to overcome a late 5-4 deficit.
Earlier in the year, those results followed with a narrow 5-4 defeat in Crawfordsville. Wooster won the top three flights.
Friday's singles flights were the same matchups as the match on April 6.
Wabash made it 3-1 with a win in the No. 6 flight as Max Stratford went down 6-0, 6-1. However, VanOyen made quick work in his second set for a 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 2 to get a point back.
The teams then split between the No. 3 and No. 5 flights. Yadav won 6-3, 6-3 in his No. 3 match, while Misra took a 7-5, 6-1 loss at No. 5.
The No. 1 and No. 4 matches each went to three sets and Wooster needed to win both.
Both Dixit, at No. 1, and Dewan, at No. 4, opened to early leads in their third sets.
Dixit held strong winning his final two games for a 6-0, 3-6, 7-5 win. For Dewan, his final set went to a tiebreaker, but he could not finish the rally, falling 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (5).
Wooster ends the season at 9-10. Wabash (13-9) will face No. 1 Denison at Noon on Saturday.
