April 1, 2007

Box Score

Big Rapids, Mich. and Allendale, Mich. - The Mercyhurst men's tennis team played a pair of teams ranked ahead of it in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association regional rankings, splitting a pair of 5-4 matches. The Lakers, ranked seventh in the Great Lakes Region, defeated No. 37 Ferris State, ranked third in the region, 5-4 Saturday before losing to Grand Valley State, ranked fourth in the region, 5-4 Sunday.

Against Ferris State, Mercyhurst led 2-1 after doubles play as Mariano Fava and Lee Michael Marnik won 8-5 at No. 1 and Mateusz Przybysz and Ronald Heurich won 8-5 at No. 3.

Marnik and Przybysz also won in singles, while Fava lost a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) match at No. 1 singles. As well, Mijo Cotic lost at No. 3 singles, setting up the match for a dramatic finish.

With Mercyhurst ahead 4-3, the Lakers needed to win at either No. 5 or No. 6 to take the match and Heurich came up with a 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 5 to get Mercyhurst the win.

Against Grand Valley State, Mercyhurst again went ahead 2-1 after singles play as the same doubles teams won their matches. However, the Lakers only got wins from Fava at No. 1 and Przybysz at No. 4 in singles play to come up on the short end of the final score.

Mercyhurst is now 11-5 overall, surpassing the 10 wins reached by the team a year ago, and 3-2 in GLIAC play. The Lakers will have 12 days off before playing at Ferris State April 13 at 2 p.m.