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OCT.
5 — Team Heads To MCCs Looking To Surprise
Goshen
drops 2-7 decision to Spring Arbor in final regular-season
match |
Goshen, IN — The Goshen College men’s tennis team concluded regular-season
play against Mid-Central Conference rival Spring Arbor University on Thursday,
dropping a 2-7 decision. The result was the second consecutive loss by that
count for the squad, as a brutal late-season schedule and inclement weather
kept Goshen (6-5, 2-5) from finishing the season in the manner head coach
Stan King had hoped. A vastly improved team from the 2005 season — Goshen
finished with a 2-6 record overall last year — a pair of late-season,
non-conference cancellations broke up a three-match winning streak for the
team, as the Leafs now head into next week’s MCC Championships trying
to revamp a two-match losing skid. For King, it’s back to a party-crashing
role for the team again at this year’s league tournament.
“Spring Arbor is one of the stronger teams in our conference and
they played well today, but I felt good about our effort as a
team and recognize several of our guys were not playing their best tennis
today,” King
said following the match. “We ended our season playing two of the best
teams in the MCC, and that should prepare us for next week’s MCC Tournament.
If we play well, we have a chance to get some things done there.”
King can only hope his doubles teams perform with slightly more
efficiency at the tournament, as Spring Arbor took a 3-0 sweep of those slots
to open play Thursday afternoon at the Goshen College Tennis Complex. The
Leafs’ two and three positions both dropped 8-5 decisions, while the
number one tandem of junior Beakal Girma and sophomore Shyamm Sabanathan
dropped a tough 9-8 (7-3) decision to the Cougars’ Matt Lantz and Jordan
Hoy.
“Beakal and Shyam played some great tennis but came up just short
in a tie-breaker,” King said. “It was not a good start for us
team-wise, as we lost all three doubles matches before going
into singles competition. Our two and three matches were also close, but
we couldn’t
make enough plays when we needed to.”
With a severe uphill climb in singles play, Goshen could muster
just two points — both of which came at the bottom of the order. Senior
JD Windhorst put together an impressive 6-2, 6-0 win over SAU’s Ken
Unger at the number six singles position, while Sabanathan showed signs of
his old self in a 6-1, 6-1 win over the Cougars’ Clark Wade at number
five singles. Freshman Joel King was the only other Leaf to come close to
securing a point in singles competition, dropping a 7-5, 6-3 match to Spring
Arbor’s Troy Heselschwerdt at the number three spot.
“In singles play, aside from Joel King’s close, 7-5, 6-3 loss
at number three, scores of the matches were rather lopsided
with SAU taking number
one, two and four and Goshen taking five and six,” Stan King
said. “It would have been much more interesting had we
captured any of the doubles points. We seem to feed
off our early doubles success.”
Goshen will hit the practice courts for a full week before traveling
to Fort Wayne next Thursday, where the team will open MCC Championship play
at 8:30 a.m. All matches will take place at Fort Wayne Concordia High School.
Singles:
#1 Matt Lantz (SA) def Beakal Girma 6-2, 6-1
#2 Jordan Hoy (SA) def Aaron Sutter 6-0, 6-2
#3 Troy Heselschwerdt (SA) def Joel King7-5, 6-3
#4 Dave Cavender (SA) def Sheldon Good 6-1, 6-0
#5 Shyam Sabanathan (G) def Clark Wade 6-1, 6-1
#6 J D Windhorst (G) def Ken Unger 6-2, 6-0
Doubles:
#1 Lantz/Hoy (SA) def Girma/Sabanathan
9-8(7-3)
#2 Cavender/Korson (SA) def Sutter/King
8-5
#3 Heselschwerdt/Clark (SA) def Windhorst/Yoder
8-5
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  Senior
JD Windhorst
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