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Wayne State University Athletics

3
Wayne State WSUM (3-2)
4
Winner Barry BARRY-M (2-1)
Wayne State WSUM
(3-2)
3
Final
4
Barry BARRY-M
(2-1)
Winner
Joe Kelt at 2024 ITA National Indoor Championship
Jenna Kane - ITA
Joe Kelt won his second set in singles via a 10-8 tiebreaker on Friday vs. Barry.

Match Recap: Men's Tennis | | Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Men's Tennis Falls Short Against Barry in First Round of ITA National Indoor Championship

The Warriors will play consolation matches the next two days in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The Wayne State University men's tennis squad (3-2 overall) fell 4-3 to Barry University (2-1 overall) on Friday evening in the first round of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Indoor Championship at UIndy Tennis Center.

The Warriors, ranked eighth in the country and seeded eighth for the tournament, faced the second-ranked Buccaneers, who were also the No. 1 seed.

DOUBLES
WSU picked up the doubles point against the four-time defending National Champions to move ahead 1-0 early in the match.

The Warriors' two nationally ranked teams were responsible for the victories.  Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany) secured a 6-3 win over Adam Lynch and Simone Cavalleri at the first flight, while Luke Laws (Sunderland, England) and Dom Spicer (London, England) downed Joao Ferreria and David Rieme 6-4 at the No. 2 spot.

The tandems were ranked fifth and 13th in the country, respectively.

Laws and Spicer's triumph served as the point-clinching match-up after Benjamin Hill (Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) and Joe Kelt (Ilkley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom) fell to Barry's Tim Riedel and Bastien Rieme, 6-2.

SINGLES
In what was tight, hard-fought battle between two of the best programs in Division II, the Buccaneers came away with four singles wins to escape with the win.

Drenth made the overall score 2-0 Wayne State with his 6-1, 6-2 victory over Lynch at the No. 2 position.  Lynch was ranked as the third-best singles player in the nation by the ITA ahead of the campaign.

Barry claimed each of the next three completed matches to rally ahead 3-2.  Riedel handed Spicer a two-set loss by matching 6-2 scores at the third flight, while Bastien Rieme defeated Spicer's doubles partner Laws with a pair of 6-3 results at the No. 5 spot.

Over at the sixth flight, Denali Kitayama (West Bloomfield Township, Mich. / Walled Lake Central (United States Air Force Academy)) suffered a 6-3, 6-2 setback to Leo Caill.

Grey pulled the Green and Gold even at the first flight via a 6-3, 6-4 triumph vs. Ferreria, which set up a winner-take-all battle at the No. 4 position for advancement in the tournament.

Kelt, facing David Rieme, lost 6-2 in the opening set.  The sophomore Warrior showed plenty of fight in a 7-6 second-set victory, in which he won the tie-breaker 10-8.  However, Kelt fell short as Rieme posted another 6-2 win in the final set to clinch the match for the Buccaneers.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will move to the consolation side of the bracket and play Indianapolis again - the team WSU just played last Sunday at the same venue (UIndy won 4-1).  The fifth-seeded Greyhounds fell 4-3 to fourth-seeded Columbus State to set up the second match-up of 2024 against WSU.  That contest will be at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday from the UIndy Tennis Center.

 
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