St. Louis, MO

The Principia Men's Tennis team faced the daunting task of taking on the #1 team in the nation in Washington University today in St. Louis. Principia had moments of very good play today despite the lopsided loss of 9-0.

At 1st doubles, Jason Wissman and Joey Sander started off the match by breaking the #1 doubles team in the region. They continued to break them for their first four service games. Unfortunately, they were unable to hold serve and were also broken in their first four service games. They lost 8-4, but left knowing that they can compete at the highest level. At 2nd doubles, Nate Waters and Aaron Switzer played some really good games, and earned some game points in many of those games. However, they were unable to close out those games and lost 8-0. At 3rd doubles, Andrew Rohrer and Daniel Drake also played some very good games, but like 2nd doubles could not close any of them out. They lost 8-0.

At 1st singles, Jason Wissman faced the #17 player in the region in Ross Putterman. After being down 5-2 in the first set, Wissman fought back to 5-4. On his service game he was down 0-40 and fought back to win that game to tie the match at 5-5. Unfortunately Wissman succumbed in a tiebreaker 7-3 (3). He was unable to remain as consistent in the second set and lost 7-6, 6-0.

At 2nd singles, Joey Sander played the #10 player in the region in John Carswell. Despite hitting the ball as well as he has all year, Sander was unable to threaten his opponent, losing 6-1, 6-0. At 3rd singles, Nate Waters hit the ball very well and was able to get things going early in the second set. He went up 3-2 in the second set, but was unable to earn any more games, losing 6-1, 6-3.

At 4th singles, Andrew Rohrer hit with consistency, but his hard hitting opponent proved to be too much. He lost 6-0, 6-0. At 5th singles, Daniel Drake played some of the best tennis he has played this season. He hit with consistency and placement, and his serve was a major force. In the end, his opponent had too much skill and was able to take the match 6-1, 6-3. At 6th singles, Aaron Switzer played extremely hard, sustaining long points and taking his opponent to deuce many times. However, as was the case most of the day, he was unable to close out any games. He lost 6-0, 6-0.

The Panthers will next be in action against Fontbonne University here at Principia on Thursday March, 27th. This is the first SLIAC match this season.

                        Principia College          Wash U             Winner             Score

1st Doubles     Jason Wissman        Ross Putterman     Wash U            8-4

                        Joey Sander             Jeremy Bush

2nd Doubles    Nate Waters             Kevin Chu              Wash U            8-0

                        Aaron Switzer           Kai Skallerud

3rd Doubles    Andrew Rohrer         Tyler Kratky            Wash U            8-0

                       Daniel Drake             Eric Zishka

1st Singles      Jason Wissman       Ross Putterman      Wash U        7-6 (3), 6-0

2nd Singles     Joey Sander            John Carswell         Wash U         6-1, 6-0

3rd Singles      Nate Waters            Kevin Chu               Wash U         6-1, 6-3

4th Singles      Andrew Rohrer        Parker Chang         Wash U         6-0, 6-0

5th Singles      Daniel Drake           Collier Bouchillon    Wash U         6-1, 6-3

6th Singles      Kenny Sydness       Eric Zishka              Wash U        6-0, 6-0