ELSAH, IL – The Principia Men's Tennis team hosted matches on back-to-back days, as they faced Hendrix College on Friday and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on Saturday. Both matches were very tightly contested with the Panthers prevailing over Hendrix 5-4, and then falling to Rose-Hulman 6-3.
Friday's night match against Hendrix was a doozy that lasted over four hours. Both teams fought their hearts out with four out of nine matches decided in a tiebreaker. In the doubles, Principia's #1 team lost pretty quickly, but the #2 and #3 matches both ended up 7-7 and needed a 7-point tiebreaker to decide the winner. Principia's #2 team were narrowly defeated 8-6, while their #3 team of
William Johnson and
Jesús Soto Bossa got the Panthers first victory of the night, winning the tiebreak 7-4.
The Panthers now needed to win four out of six matches, and they got three straight set wins by Bossa at #2,
Álvaro Martín Moliz at #3, and
Ernesto Botero at #5. After losses at #1 and #5, the overall match was tied 4-4 and would come down to the dogfight happening at #6 between
Rafter Sprague and Hendrix's Micah Moore. After losing the first set 7-5, Sprague fought back in the second set with a 6-3 win.
In the 10-point tiebreaker with everyone on both teams lining the court watching, the long rallies went back-and-forth as each player held their ground and would not back down. Sprague fought off a match point down 9-8, and then at 9-9, he hit a deadly backhand winner across the court to get a match point of his own. He would close it out with a big first serve for a huge 5-4 Principia win.
Last year's Panther team lost to Hendrix 6-3, so the depth of the team this season is a big factor behind their winning ways. Unfortunately, Principia's undefeated start came to an end the next day against a strong Rose-Hulman. squad. This was still a winnable match for the Panthers, but the team let some early leads slip away and lost 6-3.
After losing all three doubles matches, the Panthers kept their spirit and came into the singles matches ready to fight for wins. The Panthers earned straight set wins by Bossa at #2, Botero at #5 and Sprague at #6.
Juan Segovia at #1 and
Kuda Sandi at #4 each looked to be in control by winning their opening sets 6-1, but both would lose their second sets and tiebreaks to give Rose-Hulman the five wins they needed. Moliz played a hard-fought match at #3 as well, but ultimately lost 6-4, 7-5. The young Panthers will take many lessons from both matches as they continue to grow and improve as the season rolls on.
Up Next: Principia will host the University of the Ozarks at 5:30 pm on Thursday before heading to a tri-match at Wabash College in Indiana on Saturday.
