Full Team Effort Leads Panthers over Coe

Peoria, IL- Men's Tennis took down Coe College 6-3 for their biggest win of the season.
 

A look at the matches:

The Panthers arrived in Peoria ready to make some noise against the Kohawks. Daniel Gomez and Wyatt Dale started hot at #1 doubles, racing out to a 6-1 lead. They never looked back and closed out an 8-3 win. With the overall match tied at 1-1, Rafter Sprague and William Johnson had a crucial doubles point in their hands at the #3 spot. At 5-5, the Panthers got a break and held serve to go up 7-5. At 7-6, Sprague had the match on his racket and put his first serves in to finish off the Kohawks.

The team carried that momentum into singles. Gomez took care of business as usual to continue his undefeated season with a straight-set win. Juan Segovia prevailed in a first set tiebreak and dominated the second set 6-1, putting the Panthers up 4-2 and a win away from taking the overall match.

Dale's match at #2 deserves its own writeup, and was one of the most thrilling matches in recent program history. A dominant first set gave way to a Coe comeback in the second, setting up a decisive full third set. With the Panthers leading the overall match 4-3, Dale ran out to a 4-1 lead, only to drop the next four games as the Kohawks then served for the match, up 5-4 in the set. After fighting off a match point and letting one break point get away, Dale came through to break serve with and even the score at 5-5. He never gave in as the pressure continued to build, calmly holding serve to go up 6-5, and then getting one final break to win the match and seal the victory for the whole team.
 

Good to know:

Gomez and Dale took down a doubles team that finished last season as the 13^th ranked pair in the ITA Central Region rankings. They remain undefeated in doubles this season, as does Gomez in singles. William Johnson also deserves mentioning at #6 singles, as he was the last one to finish and gave the team a great win to put the final overall score at 6-3. He took the first set in a tiebreak and dropped the second set, setting up a third set tiebreak. Down 9-8 and facing match point, Johnson never stopped fighting and played solid tennis from the baseline to win the next three points, and the match.
 

Up next: The Panthers open SLIAC play against Greenville University at home on Tuesday at 5 pm.