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SEPT.
14 — Leafs Handle Earlham For Third Straight Win
Quakers
offer little resistance in 8-1 defeat; Goshen win streak
best since '02 |
Goshen, IN — Thursday afternoon at the Goshen College Tennis Complex,
the Leafs’ men’s tennis team sought a little history lesson – even
though they may not have known it.
Goshen (3-0, 0-0) knocked off visiting Earlham College by a convincing
8-1 count Thursday, extending its current winning streak to three
matches, a feat that hasn’t been duplicated by a Goshen team since
the 2002 season.
“This was a good one to win, and I was especially pleased to see
our guys stay focused and play with purpose even when matched
with relatively weak opponents,” said Stan King, Goshen head coach. “Such
was the case today at number three through six singles play,
and number two and three
doubles.”
The 2002 version of the Leafs began that season 4-0 before dropping
a match, and Thursday afternoon the current squad appeared to
have a bead on that mark.
Goshen began the night by running away with the
doubles competition,
as seniors Tim Yoder and JD Windhorst cruised to an 8-0 win in
the third position, while freshmen Aaron Sutter and Joel King
had only one blemish
in an 8-1 loss at number two doubles.
Junior Beakal Girma was reunited with
sophomore Shyam Sabanathan, who had missed all of Goshen’s competitions
up to Thursday with a nagging arm injury, to take an 8-4 decision at the
top doubles slot.
Sabanathan further showed the progress of his recovery at number
five singles — a far cry from his usual number one position — taking
out Earlham’s Darut Prasertsri in a 6-1, 6-1 decision.
The match of the day came at number three singles, where Sutter
was forced to dig deep to win a 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 super-set tie breaker against
the Quakers’ Pete DiLalla in a marathon event. Girma, still occupying
Goshen’s number one position, suffered the only loss on the evening,
dropping a 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) decision to Earlham’s Scott Miller.
Following Thursday’s final point, Goshen was still undefeated on the
season at the number two and three doubles positions. Sophomore Sheldon Good,
freshman Joel King and Windhorst continued to post perfect season records
in singles play as well.
“Aaron Sutter had a nice come back from a first set 4-6 loss to
take the match with a 6-2 second set win and a 10-8 win in a
super tie-breaker that was played instead of a third set,” Stan King
said. “Beakal
Girma was not as fortunate, however, losing his match to Earlham’s
strong number one singles player, Scott Miller, though Girma
did play some great tennis during his second set comeback from being down
1-5 and love-40
and to send the set to a tie-breaker, and then being down 1-6
in the tie-breaker to even things at 6-6 and 7-7 before losing the set and
match. Our dual matches
Friday against Bethel and Saturday against Indiana Wesleyan,
both strong conference opponents, will be a real test of just how well we
are going to
compete as a team this season in conference play.”
Goshen heads into perhaps its toughest weekend of the season
on Friday, as the team will face a pair of Mid-Central Conference
powerhouses in less than a 24-hour span. Goshen will host rival Bethel College
Friday
at 3:30 p.m. — a make-up time and date from Wednesday’s rained
out original date — and then travel to Indiana Wesleyan University
on Saturday. That match is set for an 11 a.m. start time.
Singles:
#1 Scott Miller (E) def Beakal Girma 6-2, 7-6 (9-7)
#2 Aaron Sutter (G) def Pete DiLalla 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 (super set)
#3 Joel King (G) def Aaron Weeden 6-1, 6-2
#4 Sheldon Good (G) def Serley Grechukhin 6-0, 6-2
#5 Shyam Sabanathan (G) def Darut Prasertsri 6-1, 6-1
#6 JD Windhorst (G) def Cade Eastman 6-0, 6-0
Doubles:
#1 Girma/Sabanathan (G) def Miller/DiLalla 8-4
#2 Sutter/King (G) def Weeden/Grechukhin 8-1
#3 Windhorst/Yoder (G) def Prasertsri/Adam O’Connor 8-0
Exhibition match:
Tim Yoder (G) def Dan Hurowitz 6-0, 6-1
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  Freshman
Aaron Sutter
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