By Andrew Porzio Staff writer
The Susquehanna men’s tennis team picked up its first Landmark Conference win since 2013 with an 8-1 win at the Garret Center Courts against Moravian on April 9.
The win halted a 26-game conference losing streak going all the way back to April 20, 2013 when Susquehanna defeated Goucher 6-3.
As part of one of their best performances of the season, the River Hawks swept all three doubles matches with sophomores Nicholas Meale and Ashton Collins posting an 8-2 victory at No. 3 doubles, which was the biggest margin of victory on the day.
Both Meale and Collins posted wins in singles play. Meale won No. 5 singles with a 6-0, 6-0 victory and Collins won No. 6 singles by the same margin.
Sophomore Ben Ornstein posted a solid victory at No. 1 singles with a 6-4, 6-2 score.
Sophomore Alex Cocolas was impressive in his victory at No. 3 singles with a score of 6-0, 6-1, and sophomore Ryan Seibert won his match at No. 4 singles by a 6-2, 6-1 final score.
On the women’s side, the River Hawks dropped a tough 9-0 decision to Moravian.
The match was closer than the final score indicates; the River Hawks dropped a pair of matches in tiebreakers and also had two close doubles matches that were decided by less than four points.
Linsey Sipple fell at No. 2 singles in a tiebreaker. After dropping the opening set 6-3, the junior bounced back to post a 7-5 win in the second set to force the tiebreaker.
Despite her best efforts, Sipple fell in a tight 10-8 battle in the tiebreaker.
In No. 4 singles, sophomore Eliza Griffin won the first set with 6-4 victory, however she dropped the second set 6-2 and, like teammate Sipple, she fell in a tiebreaker by a score of 10-8.
The doubles team of Sipple and senior Megan Rudloff lost their match 8-4, the same score by which the doubles team of Griffin and sophomore Cassey Fox lost.
Both the River Hawks men’s and women’s team return to action on Wednesday, April 19 when they host Juniata on the Garrett Center Courts.
The last time the men’s team met Juniata was in April of 2015, when Juniata shut out Susquehanna 9-0.
The last meeting between the two on the women’s side resulted in a 7-2 loss for Susquehanna.