Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Wayne State University Athletics

3
Wayne State WSUM (3-4)
4
Winner West Florida UWF (1-2)
Wayne State WSUM
(3-4)
3
Final
4
West Florida UWF
(1-2)
Winner
Daniel Grey vs. West Florida at 2024 ITA National Indoor Championship (02/18/2024)
Jenna Kane - ITA
Daniel Grey won in singles on Sunday vs. UWF for two victories in three singles contests over the weekend.

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

Men's Tennis Concludes ITA National Indoor Championship with Loss to #5-West Florida

The Warriors finished their three-day weekend in Indianapolis on Sunday.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The eighth-ranked Wayne State University men's tennis team (3-4 overall) finished its three-day trip at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's (ITA) National Indoor Championship with a 4-3 loss to #5-West Florida (1-2 overall) in the seventh-place match on Sunday morning inside UIndy Tennis Center.

The Warriors and the Argonauts out of Pensacola, Fla. were playing one another for the first time in program history.  West Florida, from the Gulf South Conference, entered the weekend as the six seed, while WSU was seeded eighth.

DOUBLES
For the second time in three matches, the Green and Gold obtained the doubles point.  Wayne State did so, similar to Friday's contest vs. Barry, with triumphs at the first two positions.

Both completed affairs were tight throughout.  Luke Laws (Sunderland, England) and Dom Spicer (London, England) handled Diego Duran and Albin Ekenros 7-5 at the No. 2 spot, which was the first doubles match to finish.

Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany) needed a tiebreaker to down Sebastian Rondon and Sebastian Sotelo, but claimed a 7-6 (7-2) win at the first flight to post the opening point on the scoreboard.

At the No. 3 doubles position, Joe Steele (Beverly Hills, Mich. / U. of Detroit Jesuit) and Benjamin Hill (Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) were trailing 6-5 to Joaquin Estevez and Mateo Martinez when action ended.

SINGLES
Despite gaining an advantage entering singles play twice over the weekend, Wayne State was unable to seal the deal.  The Argonauts won four of the six contests to send WSU home with a pair of narrow 4-3 losses in Indianapolis.

The Warriors' top two players in Grey and Drenth were the victors for the Green and Gold.  Grey posted an impressive 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Bernardo Costa at the top position, while Drenth followed with a two-set win over 17th-ranked Sotelo.  After a close 7-6 (7-4) victory in the opening set, the German junior earned a 6-1 triumph in the second.

Grey's win made the score 2-0 Wayne State, while Drenth's knotted the score at 3-3 near the end of the match.

Joe Kelt (Ilkley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom) faced Martinez and lost 6-3, 6-2 at the fourth flight, while Denali Kitayama (West Bloomfield Township, Mich. / Walled Lake Central (United States Air Force Academy)) suffered a 6-1, 7-5 setback to Duran at the No. 5 spot.  Both were playing in singles after not seeing the court in doubles.

West Florida went ahead 3-2 in the overall match the contest at the No, 6 position.  Hill fell by the same set scores as his teammate Kitayama (6-1, 7-5) in his battle with Ekenros. 

After Drenth made the score 3-3, the decider came down to the third position, where Spicer was playing Rondon.  The Warrior tallied a first set win of 6-3, but had matching 6-2 losses in each of the final two sets to drop the match and send UWF away with seventh-place. 

UP NEXT
Wayne State will host Walsh University out of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) on Saturday, February 24, at 1 p.m.  It will be the first match for WSU inside the Duchene Athletic Facility since the season-opener vs. Lawrence Tech on February 1.

 
Print Friendly Version

Related Headlines