Wayne State University Athletics

Men's Tennis 3/21/2024 11:00:00 AM Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Men's Tennis to Begin Two-Match Home Stint on Friday Against Findlay

The Warriors will look to snap their four-match losing streak with a win on home court.

DETROIT -- The No. 20-ranked Wayne State University men's tennis team returns to Detroit to battle the University of Findlay on Friday, March 22, at 2 p.m. inside the Duchene Athletic Facility. The Warriors are fresh off a five-match Spring Break trip that saw them play all five matches in seven days throughout Florida.

WSU will be looking to snap a four-match losing streak on Friday against the Oilers, a fellow Midwest Region opponent out of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). The Green and Gold defeated Division I Sacred Heart 5-2 in an exhibition contest to open the road trip on March 6, but lost four consecutive matches to highly-ranked Division II rivals in #15-Rollins (4-0), #6-Flagler (4-1), #33-Embry-Riddle (5-2), and #5-Barry (6-1) to return home with a 1-4 ledger.

Friday's contest vs. UF will be the sixth match-up on the season for Wayne State within the Midwest Region. The Warriors are 3-2 in the previous five affairs, with three straight in-region triumphs over Walsh (7-0), Hillsdale (6-1), and Indianapolis (4-1). Both matches on the two-match home spurt will be within the region, as WSU will welcome Tiffin University to town on Tuesday, March 26.

Wayne State enters the contest with a 6-8 overall record, but all eight losses have been to other nationally-ranked programs. In fact, the Green and Gold have played 10 of their 13 Division II matches against teams squarely within the top 50 in the country. Another two (Toledo and SHU) were Division I teams.

ITA RANKINGS UPDATE
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) released another round of rankings yesterday on Wednesday, March 20. Included were the sixth round of National Rankings and the third rounds of National Singles and Doubles Rankings for the current campaign. The Warriors appeared 20th within the country, which is up one spot from the previous list revealed on March 13. Ferris State (24th) and Grand Valley State (40th) are the other schools within the GLIAC that showed up on the list.

Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden,Germany) in 11th and Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) in 13th were the two Warriors ranked in singles for the second consecutive week. Both appeared together in doubles at the sixth position, which is up two from last week. WSU's other top doubles tandem of Luke Laws (Sunderland, England) and Dom Spicer (London, England) were 12th in Division II.

The next round of computerized rankings will be revealed by the ITA on Wednesday, March 27. There will be five more rounds of rankings prior to postseason play, which is scheduled to begin on April 26 for WSU at the GLIAC Tournament in Midland, Mich.

The new rankings provided by the ITA can be found HERE, or in the links at the top of the page.

LAST TIME OUT
Wayne State concluded its five-match Florida road trip with a 6-1 setback at #5-Barry on Tuesday, March 12 in Miami Shores, Fla. Drenth secured WSU's lone point of the match with his singles victory at the second flight. He downed fifth-ranked Adam Lynch 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 to earn the win. The Green and Gold also had a victory at No. 1 doubles, courtesy of Drenth and Grey. The duo defeated Lynch and Joao Ferreria by a 6-2 margin, but the Warriors were unable to notch the opening point of the morning session.

WAYNE STATE
With 10 matches left to play in the regular season, a number of Warriors have totaled strong spring totals through this point in the 2024 campaign. Drenth (10) and Grey (10) each have accumulated double-digit win totals for the spring, while playing primarily at the No. 2 and No. 1 singles spots, respectively.

In doubles, the Drenth/Grey and Laws/Spicer pairings have each nabbed eight dual match victories for the Green and Gold. They have seen most of their action at the first two positions. A total of five different tandems have seen playing time at the third doubles flight, with Benjamin Hill (Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) registering two wins each with Joe Steele (Beverly Hills, Mich. / U. of Detroit Jesuit) and Emil Mikkelsen (Soenderborg, Denmark).

VS. FINDLAY (3/22)
Findlay enters the afternoon with a 4-7 overall record through 11 matches. The Oilers have won three of their last four matches against Davenport (7-0), Eckerd (6-1), and Oberlin (7-0) after dropping six of seven to begin the year.

The Green and Gold have lost just once to UF in 21 matches since April 2, 2003. That came in a 4-3 decision in favor of Findlay on March 13, 2021, at Peachtree Tennis Club in Clinton Township, Mich. The Warriors won 18 contests in a row between 2003 and 2020, and claimed the past two match-ups on February 18, 2022 (6-1 win at UF), and April 8, 2023 (7-0 in Detroit).

The Oilers are coached by Doug Linden in his 11th season as head coach He has led Findlay to an even 103-103 (.500) overall record.

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Players Mentioned

Cedric Drenth: 6' 2"; Junior

Daniel Grey: 6' 0"; Senior

Benjamin Hill: 6' 0"; Freshman

Luke Laws: 5' 10"; Graduate Student

Emil Mikkelsen: 5' 11"; Senior

Dom Spicer: 5' 11"; Graduate Student

Joe Steele: 6' 0"; Senior

Players Mentioned

Cedric Drenth
: 6' 2"; Junior

Daniel Grey
: 6' 0"; Senior

Benjamin Hill
: 6' 0"; Freshman

Luke Laws
: 5' 10"; Graduate Student

Emil Mikkelsen
: 5' 11"; Senior

Dom Spicer
: 5' 11"; Graduate Student

Joe Steele
: 6' 0"; Senior