GOSHEN Ind. - With the Crossroads League tournament right around the corner, the Maple Leaf men's tennis team rolled to its fifth straight win (4 in Crossroads League play) as they took a 2-1 slim doubles lead against the visiting Trojans, and turned in into a route as they grabbed five of the six singles matches to cruise to a convincing 7-2 victory that propels them into thrid place in the league.
In a back and forth battle in doubles play that saw the Leafs on the verge of dropping 2 of the 3 matches, the # 3 duo of Balazs Pirot and Taylor Ermoian stepped up with the match on the line. "Balazs Pirot and Taylor Ermoian came through with a big 9-7 win at #3 doubles, and that, together with our win at #2 doubles (Luis Perex and Vasanth Palanisamy), gave us a more comfortable 2-1 lead going into singles," said 16 year veteran head coach Stan King. "Balazs and Taylor came from down 5-6 to take a 7-6 lead before winning 9-7."
In singles play, however, the Maple Leafs siezed full control of the competition as they rolled to win five matches and post a rather lop sided victory after such a close and competitive start to the day.
While Vasanth Palanisamy (#4) and Aritha Weerasinghe (#5) posted easy victories with 6-1, 6-1, and 6-1, 6-2 scores respectively, The fifth and decisive team point was won by Michael Oyer (#6), who after sailing through his first set with a 6-1 score, struggled a bit in the second, falling behind 1-4, before winning the last five games and the set 6-4.
In addition to the four through six match ups, Coach King gave praise to the strong performances by Pirot (#1) and Kaasa (#3)."It was good to see Jon bounce back in his second set after losing a nice lead and three out of four games before decisively taking the last two games," said King. "It was also gratifying to see Balazs Pirot come through with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win at #1, especially since he hasn't had a lot of time to get his game back on track after staying off court for 2.5 weeks with an ankle injury."
The only disappointment on the afternoon was that Luis Perez (#2) had to retire holding a 4-3 lead, due to injuries to his right arm and shoulder and his outlook for return to action is unknown.
With the win, the Maple Leafs move to an overall record of 6-4 and a Crossroads League record of 5-2 as they head into one final league match up at Grace College (4-2 and in 4th place) at 4:00 pm this Tuesday, September 23rd.
Complete Results: Goshen 7, Taylor 2
Doubles:
- Guarin/Ramirez (T) def Kaasa/Weerasinghe 8-4
- Perez/Palanisamy (G) def Perry/Robbins 8-4
- Pirot/Taylor Ermoian (G) def Jung/Jacob Scott 9-7
Singles:
- Balazs Pirot (G) def Carlos Guarin 6-3, 6-2
- Juan Ramirez (T) def Luis Perez 3-4 retired
- Jon Kaasa (G) def Carter Perry 6-3, 6-3
- Vasanth Palanisamy (G) def Chris Robbins 6-1, 6-1
- Aritha Weerasinghe (G) def Jon Forte 6-1, 6-2
- Michael Oyer (G) def Alex Jung 6-1, 6-4
Extra Matches:
Bedon/ Forte (T) def Ratnatunga/Gerig 8-3
Taylor Ermoian (G) def Antoine Timbers 8-4
Jacob Scott (T) def Siddath Ratnatunga 6-1, 6-4
Ruben Bedon (T) def Joel Gerig 8-1
