GOSHEN, Ind. — Juan Miguel Ciudad and Kartikeya Sharma posted matching 6-0, 6-0 victories at the no. 3 and no. 4 singles positions as the Goshen College men's tennis team cruised past Saint Francis 6-3 Tuesday afternoon at the Goshen College Tennis Complex.
Sharma's doubles partner, Eric Zuercher, followed him and Ciudad off the courts with a 6-1, 6-1 win at the second spot. Coupled with the Maple Leafs' wins in two of the three doubles matches, that gave the hosts the requisite five team points and moved GC back to .500 at 4-4 this season.
The Cougars (0-6, 0-5) claimed two of the final three singles matches: Daniel Harrold used two tiebreaks to get past Eric Cender at no. 5 singles, while Aritha Weerasinghe used a 6-1 second set to ease past Nathan Barger for Goshen's other singles point.
Weerasinghe and Luke Rush posted an 8-3 win at no. 2 doubles, dropping one fewer game than Ciudad and Cender did in their win at no. 3.
The victory moves Goshen into a tie for fifth in the Crossroads League standings at 3-2 in league play: while there are four schools ahead of GC on a percentage basis, two of them have played as few as three matches each. The top four teams in the league after all nine teams have played eight matches host the conference tournament quarterfinals in October's first week.
Goshen heads to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association regional tournament this weekend with three singles entries and two doubles pairs. The action starts at 8 a.m. Thursday morning at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Goshen 6, Saint Francis 3
1S. Aritha Weerasinghe (G) def. Nathan Barger 7-6(3), 6-1
2S. Eric Zuercher (G) def. Austin Overlander 6-1, 6-1
3S. Kartikeya Sharma (G) def. Jay Stanchin 6-0, 6-0
4S. Juan Miguel Ciudad (G) def. Alex Stavretis 6-0, 6-0
5S. Daniel Harrold (SF) def. Eric Cender 7-6(3), 7-6(3)
6S. Tyler Christlieb (SF) def. Evan Beck 7-5, 6-0
1D. Barger/Stanchin (SF) def. Zuercher/Sharma 8-4
2D. Weerasinghe/Luke Rush (G) def. Harrold/Overlander 8-3
3D. Ciudad/Cender (G) def. Stavretis/Christlieb 8-5
