Goshen, IN — The Goshen College men’s tennis team was dealt heartbreak of the closest kind for the second time in five days Saturday, as visiting Marian College handed the Leafs a 5-4 Mid-Central Conference defeat at the Goshen College Tennis Complex.
The bitter loss came on the heels of another 5-4 defeat — Tuesday Goshen fell to MCC rival Indiana Wesleyan University (click here for related article) — giving head coach Stan King reason to reflect on what might have been.
“Marian is one of the better teams in the conference,” King said. “We had some chances to win this one, but we couldn’t quite pull it off though we played some very good tennis.”
Goshen (1-5, 1-4) was looking for its first win over Marian since the 2003 season and — much like its recent history with Indiana Wesleyan — was looking to end a recent run of dominance by its league opponent. Coming into Saturday’s match, Goshen had won just two games in the teams’ last three meetings.
“When you think about how close we have been both against IWU and Marian this week, it does sting to think about possibly being 3-3 (in the conference),” King said. “But, we are getting close, and that’s a step in the right direction.”
King’s squad was led by senior Beakal Girma on Saturday, as the Leafs’ top singles player had his game fully grooved in both solo and doubles competition. Girma teamed with freshman Sashi Sabanathan to hand Marian an 8-3 loss at the number one doubles flight, while the Knights’ Clay Schneider was no match for Girma in a 6-0, 6-4 defeat at the number one singles position.
“This was Beakal Girma’s day, finally,” King said. “When he’s on his game, like he was today, he’s really fun to watch, not just for the great display of tennis, but because of the obvious enjoyment he’s experiencing in the process. Beakal has a wide range of tennis tools, and he used them in his decisive singles and doubles wins.”
Sadly for Goshen, Girma’s day came at the expense of Sabanathan’s only off day to date, as the freshman dropped his first collegiate singles match to Marian’s Jesse Martin (6-1, 6-3) in the number two flight. Coming into the match, Sabanathan was undefeated as the Leafs’ number two singles player, a record bolstered by one win at the top singles flight in his only appearance there (click here for article).
“Jesse played number one singles for Marian in each of the last three years, so Sashi was going up against a very good player,” King said. “Even with his loss, he had a great starting run to his career by going 4-0 at number two and 1-0 at number one singles before today.”
Even with Sabanathan’s rare loss, Goshen’s true downfall came in the lower half of its lineup on Saturday, as Marian took the final doubles position and singles’ flights three through six for the narrow win. Much like Tuesday’s match against Indiana Wesleyan, the team score came down to sophomore Joel King at number four singles, and again King dropped a hard-fought, three-set match.
“Joel lost 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) and gave great effort in extending his match to a third-set tiebreaker,” Stan King said. “Jesse Miller has been dominating the middle of Marian’s line up for the past three years. The fact we couldn’t pull off a win in the lower third of our line up really hurt our chances of winning this match. For the team to contend for wins, we’re going to have to win a point or two at these positions.”
King’s team will now have to let these past two defeats simmer, as an idle week comes at a tough time for the squad. Goshen will return to the courts next Saturday for another MCC match-up, as Huntington University will visit the Maple City. Match time is set for 10 a.m.
Singles:
#1 Beakal Girma (G) def Clay Schneider 6-0, 6-4
#2 Jesse Martin (M) def Sashi Sabanathan 6-1, 6-3
#3 Alex Dominguez (G) def Brice Fairchild 6-1, 6-4
#4 Jesse Miller (M) def Joel King 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3)
#5 Neil Kneis (M) def Sheldon Good 6-1, 6-0
#6 Alex Bienz (M) def Chanuk Algama 7-5, 6-0
Doubles:
#1 Girma/SSabanathan (G) def Schneider/Wilder 8-3
#2 Dominguez/King (G) def Martin/Miller 8-6
#3 Kneis/Mustin (M) def Good/Abebe 8-3
Exhibition matches:
Jeff Graf (M) def Ben Toews 8-1
Jeff Graf (M) def Jordan Kauffman 8-1
Fairchild/Graf (M) def Algama/Toews 8-5
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Senior Beakal Girma