By Andrew Porzio Staff writer
The Susquehanna men’s tennis team dropped a thriller to Catholic on April 2 by a score of 5-4.
The match lasted nearly six hours as the River Hawks came back from being down 4-1 to tie the match before ultimately falling in the final singles match of the day.
Susquehanna opened the day with a victory in No. 2 doubles as sophomores Alexander Dove and Alexander Cocolas won in an 8-4 decision. Sophomores Nicholas Meale and Ashton Collins lost in a tight 9-8 tie-breaker decision in No. 3 doubles as Catholic headed in to singles play with a 2-1 lead in team scoring.
Catholic won the first two singles matches to increase its team lead to 4-1. However, the River Hawks rebounded in a big way, winning the next three singles matches to tie the team score at four. Cocolas won 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 in No. 3 singles, sophomore Ryan Seibert won in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 to win No. 4 singles and Meale came back after dropping the first set 4-6 and won 6-2, 6-3 in the No. 5 singles to knot the team score at 4-4.
Catholic earned the win in the match with a victory in No. 6 singles. Collins took the opening set 6-1, but he lost in a tie-breaker in the second set before falling 6-2 in the final set, which ultimately gave Catholic the 5-4 team victory.
The River Hawk’s women’s team also fell to Catholic in a 9-0 decision. Senior Alyssa Fleischman had a pair of close matches in No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles but could not pull out the win in either.
Fleischman came up short in a tie-breaker match as the Cardinals rolled to the win. In the No.1 singles match, Fleischman lost 7-5 and 6-4, the closest match of the day for women’s singles.
Sophomore Abagail Ransom and Fleischman teamed up in the No.1 doubles match of the day. The duo battled hard but in the end fell to the Cardinals 8-4.
Susquehanna’s No. 3 doubles team of sophomores Eliza Griffin and Cassey Fox fell in a tie-breaker as Catholic took home the victory.
Both the men’s and women’s teams return to the courts with conference matches against Elizabethtown on Saturday, April 8 and Moravian on Sunday, April 9.
Elizabethtown, Moravian and Susquehanna are all tied for sixth place in the Landmark Conference men’s tennis race.
The three teams are tied for fifth place in the women’s tennis race.
