Box Score in HTML Format
SALISBURY, Md. -- A thrilling comeback in the No. 2 doubles matchup highlighted an impressive 9-0 shutout at Salisbury University on Wednesday afternoon, as the 33rd-ranked Christopher Newport men's tennis team secured the No. 2 seed in next week's Capital Athletic Conference Tournament with the win. The Captains improved to 12-8 overall, with a 6-1 mark against the league, while regionally-ranked Salisbury falls to 15-5, 5-2.
At No. 2 doubles, rookie
Andy Mason and sophomore
William Trang faced a stiff challenge when they fell behind their Salisbury counterparts, 7-2. In the eight-game pro set, the Sea Gulls needed just one game to capture the win, but Mason and Trang ran off six straight to take an 8-7 lead. After Matthew Ryan and Ian Siew broke serve to force a tiebreaker, the home tandem took a 2-0 lead in the extra points. From there, though, the Captains underclassmen surged to the win by capturing seven of the next eight points. Mason and Trang won, 9-8 (3).
The other two doubles bouts finished at 8-2, as CNU swept through pairs play.
David Reed and
Justin Cerny won at No. 1, while
Arttu Fiva and
Michael Dodd added the win on the third line.
In singles play, Mason's long day continued with an appearance against Patrick MacLean at No. 3. The CNU rookie won his first set, 6-4, but dropped the second, 6-3. In the third set tiebreaker, Mason outlasted MacLean for a 10-7 win.
The other five matches finished in straight set victories for the Captains. Trang picked up the clinching win at No. 5 against Matthew Ryan (6-1, 6-1); Reed (6-2, 6-2) and Cerny (6-3, 6-3) won on the top two lines. Rounding out the wins were
Dominic Lacombe (6-1, 6-1) at No. 4 and
Nicholas Ruzicka (6-3, 6-1) at No. 6.
After the match, the CAC Tournament seeding was solidified, with CNU at #2 and Salisbury #3 in the seeding. The Captains will host the Sea Gulls in the semifinal round on April 18 with match time yet to be determined. Before that, the Captains will travel to nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins to close the regular season at 2:00 pm on April 15.
