Wayne State University Athletics

Marta Komar

Luke Laws and Dom Spicer won their first doubles match at the ITA Cup on Friday.

Men's Tennis 10/13/2023 8:24:00 PM Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Second Day of ITA Cup Finished for Men's Tennis

The Warriors' two doubles teams competed in a pair of matches on Friday.

ROME, Ga. -- On a rainy Friday evening at the Rome Tennis Center, two Wayne State University men's tennis doubles teams played in their ITA Cup second-day matches.

With outdoor action hindered by rain for a majority of the afternoon and evening, the ITA decided to move several doubles matches inside following a delay.

The rain affected the start time of Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey's (Wiesbaden, Germany) match against Cas de Ruiter and Teodor Zlatar from Harding University, which was slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. on the outdoor courts.

The quarterfinals match went the way of the Harding tandem, as de Ruiter and Zlatar won in straight sets. Drenth and Grey fell by scores of 6-2 and 6-4 to see their run to the finals end. The German duo entered the championship as the top-seeded doubles pairing in the field following their win in the A doubles bracket at the ITA Midwest Regional in Grand Rapids, Mich. They have been competing in their second consecutive ITA Cup.

Despite the loss, Drenth and Grey are guaranteed one more contest on Saturday as consolation. The two Warriors will face Takumi and Katsuda and Jonas Krahofer from the University of Texas Permian Basin on day three from the Rome Tennis Center.

Luke Laws (Sunderland, England) and Dom Spicer (London, England) played in a consolation match on Friday after a Round of 16 defeat the day before. The grad pairing rebounded after a tough decision to grab a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Seth Newman and Henry Ronnberg from Saint Thomas Aquinas in the consolation quarterfinals.

Due to the rain, the ITA announced that second-round consolation matches for Division II and Division II will be resumed on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The association also reported that third-round matches were canceled. That means Laws and Spicer will have one more match on tap for the weekend in Rome, Ga., which will be vs. Azusa Pacific's Elias Walter and Miha Velicki.

Laws and Spicer are in their first ITA Cup together as a doubles tandem after earning one of the eight at-large bids, while Spicer also went to the singles championship a year ago. Drenth and Grey were automatic qualifiers with their doubles victory at the regional championship.

The ITA Cup, formerly known as the Small College Nationals, has a history dating back to 1986. It is the only singles and doubles national championship event for the Division II and NAIA levels. In 2022, more than 8,000 players participated in 60 regional tournaments to gain entry into the ITA Cup field.

WSU will finish its stay in Rome, Ga. on Saturday. The event is being hosted by Berry College for a seventh consecutive year, dating back to 2017.

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Players Mentioned

Cedric Drenth: 6' 2"; Junior

Daniel Grey: 6' 0"; Senior

Luke Laws: 5' 10"; Graduate Student

Dom Spicer: 5' 11"; Graduate Student

Players Mentioned

Cedric Drenth
: 6' 2"; Junior

Daniel Grey
: 6' 0"; Senior

Luke Laws
: 5' 10"; Graduate Student

Dom Spicer
: 5' 11"; Graduate Student