|
|
SEPT.
21 — Goshen "Officially" Trumps Grace, 7-2
Teams'
second meeting of the season produces similar result in
Leafs' win |
Winona Lake, IN — After dropping its first three Mid-Central Conference
matches of the season, the Goshen College men’s tennis team presumed
it had a plausible chance at knocking off league foe Grace College Thursday
afternoon in Winona Lake, Ind. The Leafs defeated Grace by a 6-3 score in
a non-conference home match on Sept. 9 (click here for article), and desperately
wanted Thursday’s road match to go in their favor.
Following a Goshen sweep of doubles play and taking four out
of six singles matches, it was official.
Goshen (4-2, 1-3) collected its first MCC win of the season with
a 7-2 win over the Lancers, putting the team back in the mix of the conference
race. Junior Beakal Girma and sophomore Shyam Sabanathan led the charge in
Thursday’s team victory, winning the number one doubles position by
an 8-5 score — a slot that Goshen did not take from Grace in the teams’ previous
meeting.
“It was good to jump to a 3-0 team lead in this match by starting
out with a sweep in doubles,” said Stan King, Goshen head coach. “I
was especially pleased to see Girma and Sabanathan win their
number one doubles match, a position Goshen had lost in our previous non-conference
match with
Grace. Our two and three doubles also played well while taking
convincing wins.”
Starting the day off with a sweep in doubles, the Leafs looked
to better or at least duplicate its 4-2 advantage in singles play from the
Sept. 9 match — a feat that Goshen accomplished only with different
components providing the result. While Girma suffered a similar defeat to
Grace’s Landon Reifsnider at the number one singles position, freshman
Aaron Sutter came back to beat the Lancers’ Jason Sells by a 4-6, 6-2,
6-3 score. Sutter dropped his initial match with Sells by a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4
tally.
“Aaron Sutter came back from a one set deficit in his number two
singles match to win against Jason Sells who had defeated him
in two sets in their earlier meeting,” King said. “Any time you
can defeat a player after losing to him earlier in the season, you have to
feel good
about yourself. Beakal Girma lost in two sets at to veteran Landon
Reifsnider, though Girma put up a good fight while going down 5-7 in the
first set.”
It may have been an 8-1 win for Goshen had sophomore Sheldon
Good replicated his win over Grace’s Marcus Moore — Good won
a 6-3, 6-2 decision on Sept. 9 — but Moore got the better on Thursday,
taking the number four singles match by a 7-5, 6-1 count. On a positive note,
Sabanathan was able to play well in both doubles and singles play, marking
the first time the team’s ace of last season was able to withstand
a nagging arm injury for a pair of wins.
“Sheldon Good didn’t have his ‘A game’ going today
against a feisty Marcus Moore in a two-set loss at number four singles,” King
said. “It was good to see Sabanathan again play through both singles
and doubles without further aggravating his upper arm. He won
his singles match (a 6-2, 6-0 decision over Grace’s Adam Bedwell in
the five position) with relative ease.”
Goshen will take a brief trip out of conference play when the
team travels to St. Joseph’s College on Saturday. Match time is slated
for a 9:30 a.m. EST start.
Singles:
#1 Landon Reifsnider (Gr) def Beakal Girma 7-5, 6-0
#2 Aaron Sutter (Go) def Jason Sells 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
33 Joel King (Go) def Matt Blevins 6-3, 6-3
#4 Marcus Moore (Gr) def Sheldon Good 7-5, 6-1
#5 Shyam Sabanathan (Go) def Adam Bedwell 6-2, 6-0
#6 J D Windhorst (Go) def Tyler Moore 6-0, 6-2
Doubles:
#1 Girma/Sabanathan (Go) def Reifsnider/Sells 8-5
#2 Sutter/King (Go) def Blevins/Bedwell
8-5
#3 Windhorst/Yoder (Go) def Moore/Abschager
8-3
|
  Junior
Beakal Girma
|
|
|
|
|
|
