DC Falls in Yellow Jacket Duel

DEFIANCE, OHIO – The Defiance College men's tennis team fell to Baldwin Wallace University by a score of 7-2, but the battle was much tighter than the score reflected.

The two victories for Defiance (3-4) came at the hands of sophomore fifth singles player Tory Savage (Bryan) and freshman Adam Swisher (Bedford, Mich. /Bedford) at six singles. Both players came away with these victories in exciting fashion as well.

In Savage's case, he fell to an early deficit by dropping the first set 6-3.  He bounced back in the second set by winning it with a 6-3 score of his own. Since the overall match score had already been won by Baldwin Wallace (9-1), a third set tiebreaker was played to determine the victor. Savage managed to hold strong as he forced his opponent into errors and winning the final set 10-8. This was his first contest at number five singles and it makes his overall singles record 3-4.

Swisher nearly emulated Savage's outing. The match was also his first at the six singles slot and the win pushes his overall singles record to 3-4. Also dropping the first set, Swisher fought back to win the second and third sets for the victory by a score of 4-6, 7-5, 13-11.

Sophomore James DeMeo (Oregon/Clay) and senior Ryan Nelson (Oregon/Clay) also competed in highly competitive matches at second and third singles. DeMeo's effort at second singles was a back-and-forth battle that ended with him falling 4-6, 6-3, 7-10. Nelson, on the other hand, was unable to hold onto his first set victory before falling 6-4, 2-6, 6-10.

All three doubles teams fell in close contests as well. Both number one and two doubles fell 8-4 while third doubles took an extra game and lost 8-5.

The next outing for the DC squad will be a match against Rochester (Mich.) College (0-6). The match is scheduled to begin at 4:00 pm on Thurs., March 26 at the Dix Tennis Facility.