Wayne State University Athletics

Luke Laws and Dom Spicer earned two victories in their final two matches at the ITA Cup.

Men's Tennis 10/14/2023 2:13:00 PM Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Men's Tennis Plays in Last Day of Matches at ITA Cup

The two WSU doubles pairings combined for three victories over the three-day event.

ROME, Ga. -- The Wayne State University men's tennis team played in its final day of matches at the ITA Cup on Saturday. WSU's two doubles teams of Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany) and Luke Laws (Sunderland, England) and Dom Spicer (London, England) combined to record a 3-3 record at the Rome Tennis Center.

Wayne State's two tandems were playing in consolation matches after being eliminated from the main doubles bracket. After losing in the Round of 16 on Thursday, Laws and Spicer rebounded nicely to secure a pair of victories to close out their championship stay. The graduate students played in a tight contest against Elias Walter and Miha Velicki of Azusa Pacific University on Saturday and came out on top. WSU's team won the opening set 6-4 and APU's pairing notched a 6-3 win in the second set. In the final super-tiebreaker, Laws and Spicer earned a 10-7 decision in their favor and claimed the overall match.

Combined with their triumph on Friday in their other consolation match, the two Warriors posted a 2-1 record for the three days in Rome, Ga.

Drenth and Grey entered the ITA Cup as the No. 1 overall seed and started with a Round of 16 triumph, but fell in the quarterfinals to Cas de Ruiter and Teodor Zlatar from Harding University. Playing in their final contest of the weekend, the German duo were defeated in another close match vs. Takumi Katsuda and Jonas Krahofer from University of Texas Permian Basin. The Green and Gold team were able to collect a 7-5 win in the second set, but dropped the opening set 6-3 and the super-tiebreaker 10-6 to come up just short. They finish their three-match gauntlet with a 1-2 ledger.

Several matches on Saturday at the Rome Tennis Center were delayed by two hours due to more weather issues. Wayne State's two matches were slated to begin at 9 a.m. Yesterday, the ITA announced that third-round consolation matches were canceled due to the schedule changes, which meant that Laws and Spicer will not earn an opportunity to compete in the consolation finals.

This year's ITA Cup was a special one for the Warriors in that the program sent two doubles teams to the championship. Drenth and Grey were automatic qualifiers with their doubles victory at the ITA Midwest Regional in Grand Rapids, Mich. For a second consecutive season, they went 2-1 at the event after also qualifying a season ago. Laws and Spicer received one of the eight at-large bids following a finals defeat to their WSU teammates. They were competing in their first ITA Cup together as a team. Spicer was also in the singles field in 2022.

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. The event was hosted by Berry College for a seventh consecutive year, dating back to 2017.

Wayne State has one more fall tournament on the docket and it is a new one. The Warriors will be hosting their Inaugural Mike Kneale Memorial Doubles Tournament on Saturday, October 28. The three teams scheduled to attend with WSU are Findlay, Tiffin, and Lawrence Tech.

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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