MARION, Ind. — Goshen College earned its third straight men's tennis victory over Indiana Wesleyan University on Tuesday with a 5-4 victory over the Wildcats at IWU's Sutter Tennis Center.
For the third consecutive Wildcat/Maple Leaf showdown, the match came down to the final position on the court. Aritha Weerasinghe won at no. 4 singles for the Maple Leafs in the 2015 regular season before Eric Zuercher claimed the win at no. 6 singles in the Crossroads League tournament last fall. Tuesday night, freshman Juan Miguel Ciudad posted a 7-6, 6-1 win at no. 4 singles to seal the win.
Goshen (2-2, 2-1 CL) took a 2-1 lead after the doubles segment, the products of wins at the top two spots. Zuercher and Kartikeya Sharma won their match 8-6 at no. 1: after an IWU win at no. 3, Weerasinghe and Luke Rush won a tiebreaker 7-5 to give their team the edge.
The hosts (1-2, 1-2) leveled the team match at 2-all with a 6-0, 6-2 win at no. 5 singles. While the remaining five matches were closer, the final score was also deceptively close: no singles position required three sets, and all but one included multiple breaks of serve. Weerasinghe and Zuercher also won singles matches for the Maple Leafs.
Goshen's three-match win streak comes on the heels of a 13-year IWU win streak; the Maple Leafs had previously won six straight meetings from 1995-2000. The two teams finished second and third in the 2015 Crossroads League standings, trailing eventual national qualifier Marian.
Indiana Wesleyan, the team that has claimed 24 of the 26 championships since the Crossroads League began sponsoring women's tennis in 1991, won the women's match 9-0. The Maple Leafs (0-3, 0-3) defaulted at no. 3 doubles and no. 5 singles, and the hosts (5-0, 5-0) won each of the remaining 76 games.
Goshen hosts Anderson University in a non-conference tune-up at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
More, including comments from Goshen director of tennis Evan Atkinson, to come when available.
Men: Goshen 5, Indiana Wesleyan 4
1S. Aritha Weerasinghe (G) def. Juan Pedro 6-1, 6-1
2S. Eric Zuercher (G) def. Tyler Abbott 6-4, 6-2
3S. Jacob Rankin (IW) def. Kartikeya Sharma 6-2, 7-6
4S. Juan Miguel Ciudad (G) def. Austin Christner 7-6(6), 6-1
5S. Andrew Block (IW) def. Eric Cender 6-0, 6-2
6S. Niko Rongos (IW) def. Evan Beck 7-5, 6-3
1D. Zuercher/Sharma (G) def. Christner/Rongos 8-6
2D. Weerasinghe/Luke Rush (G) def. Abbott/Block 9-8(5)
3D. Alex Lyons/Rankin (IW) def. Ciudad/Cender 8-3
Women: Indiana Wesleyan 9, Goshen 0
1S. Rachel Bottorff (IW) def. Noemi Salvador 6-0, 6-0
2S. Marissa Klein (IW) def. Joelle Friesen 6-0, 6-0
3S. Lizzie Bauss (IW) def. Kendra Lozano 6-0, 6-0
4S. Olivia Reed (IW) def. Chloe Woodward 6-0, 6-0
5S. Mikayla Marazzi (IW) def. Chelsea Katchmazenski 6-0, 6-0
6S. Indiana Wesleyan by default
1D. Alex Mella/Thewuni Devaraja (IW) def. Salvador/Friesen 6-0, 6-0
2D. Kelsey Vessels/Ellen Hornett (IW) def. Lozano/Woodward 6-0, 6-0
3D. Indiana Wesleyan by default
