ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Wayne State men's tennis team defeated Grand Valley State 5-4 on Friday for the Warriors' first win over the Lakers since the 2004-05 season. WSU (11-4, 4-0 GLIAC) is now 2-1 this year in matches that have been decided by one point.
The victory moves Wayne State into a tie for first place in the conference with Ferris State.
Wayne State and Grand Valley battled in several close matches on the day as two doubles contests were decided by two points or less and three singles matches went three sets. However, Wayne State was able to claim victory thanks to two doubles and three singles wins.
WSU's doubles wins came from its No. 1 and No. 3 teams. Bertrand Moulin (Lyon, France) and Britton Steele (Novi, Mich., Detroit Catholic Central (Mich. State)) grabbed an 8-6 victory from the top spot over GVSU's Pat Snyder and Marc Roesslein with Kevin Turnbull (Shelby Twp., Mich., Warren De La Salle) and Oscar Gamarra (Guayaquil, Ecuador, Unidad Educativa Javier) also recording a win for Wayne State from the third flight against Jeff Globerson and Ryan Diebold 9-8 (1).
Grand Valley earned its only doubles point when Philipp Claus and Brock Plangger bested Wayne State's No. 2 pairing of Thomas Ducret (Paris, France) and Eric Szydlowski (Canton, Mich., Canton) 8-3.
Just as he had done earlier in the week vs. Tiffin, Moulin was able to overcome an opening-set loss and pull out a win by defeating Roesslein 0-6, 6-2, 6-0.
After losing to his team in doubles play, Ducret was able to strike a little revenge on Plangger at third singles 6-2, 6-2.
WSU's final point of the day came when Roberto Gomez (Comitan Chiapas, Mexico, Preparaforia del Estado de Comitan (Seward County)) stepped up with a clutch senior performance to defeat Josh Kazdan 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, ensuring the Warrior win.
For the first time this season Jon Groszek (Dearborn Heights, Mich., Divine Child) lost a match from the sixth flight, finding himself on the wrong end of a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 decision against Alex Parker. Steele (6-2, 6-1) and Gamarra (6-4, 6-2) also came up short from the second and fourth flights.
The Warriors will return to action when they host Findlay on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.
