UMW men’s tennis serves up a win against NC Wesleyan University 

by ANNA GOODMAN

Sports Editor

The UMW men’s tennis team defeated North Carolina Wesleyan University 5-2 at home Tuesday afternoon, improving to 18-5 on the season. 

The Eagles started strong by dominating in the doubles, winning all three matches, which set the overall match score to 1-0.

After fighting hard, junior biomedical sciences major Evan Fisher and junior business administration major Jack Riordan won their double 7-5. Going down to match point, the duo came back in a tiebreaker.

“Coming back down, a break in doubles to trudge on, we were down match point, and then we ended up winning it, turning around, just pretty fun,” said Fisher.  

The other two doubles teams won their matches with commanding performances. Trevor Rein, a junior economics major and Asher Willenborg, a junior finance major, won 6-1. Rein said the key to winning is keeping up a good energy and positive attitude.

“A lot of good energy, [Willenborg] is very positive, he’s great and always upbeat and always having belief that we can win,” said Rein about his doubles partner.

Freshmen Ryan Battaglia and Ryan Ginper won their match 6-1. 

The good energy and winning mentality carried the Eagles through in the single matches to secure the victory, winning four out of the six matches. 

Willenborg won in straight sets, only dropping one game, with a score of 6-1 in the first set and 6-0 in the second to secure his point for the Eagles. 

Rein followed suit, winning in straight sets, with scores of 6-4 and 6-2. Battaglia battled through three sets to secure a win after dropping the first, with scores of  2-6, 6-2 and 6-4. 

Sealing the team’s victory, freshman Cooper Lehman won his singles match with scores of 6-4 and 6-2.

The team’s win at home marked another strong performance for the Eagles as they close in on the end of the regular season. 

Fisher reflected on this past season with his teammates and said that they have put in hours of hard work that led to success on the court. 

“I would say we’ve just gotten a little bit tougher overall,” Fisher said. “We’ve just been out there grinding every single day, just working on our craft, and I think it’s just finally starting to pay off.”

After a devastating loss against Trinity University on April 17 with an overall score of 0-7, the Eagles were determined to get back on their winning streak. 

“I mean, we had a tough one last week, but the boys bounced back very well today, and so we’re right back on the right path,” said Fisher.

However, the fight is not over yet. The team has hopes of advancing in the Coast to Coast Athletic conference tournament and the NCAA tournament. 

“It’s gonna be big, lost in the final last year against CNU, so try to go back out and win it this year, and then on to the NCAA tournament,” said Rein. 

The Eagles’ next match will be on April 29 against No. 7 Johns Hopkins University at home; this game was rescheduled from March 27. 

“Last couple years, we’ve been telling ourselves we can do it, but maybe not actually believing it 100%, but now all the guys are all in committed, and we believe we can go far and win a lot,” said Rein.