DETROIT -- The No. 20-ranked Wayne State University men's tennis program (8-8 overall) shut out No. 38-ranked Tiffin University (10-6 overall) by a 4-0 score inside the Duchene Athletic Facility in a Midwest Region battle on Tuesday afternoon.
The Warriors earned back-to-back wins at home over Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) opponents in TU and Findlay. The squad also improved to 5-2 within the region and collected their third victory of 2024 against programs that have been nationally ranked by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) in Division II.
DOUBLES
Both completed matches in doubles ended with a 7-5 triumph for WSU tandems. That gave the Green and Gold the important first point in a contest that was played to clinch.
In an all-ranked affair at the first flight, the sixth-ranked Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany) downed the No. 22-ranked Michael Gurtner and Matthew Telford.
The second 7-5 victory for WSU came from Joe Steele (Beverly Hills, Mich. / U. of Detroit Jesuit) and Emil Mikkelsen (Soenderborg, Denmark). They defeated Martin Driesner and Cyrille Colomb at the No. 3 position shortly after Drenth and Grey won their match on the other court.
The No. 12-ranked Luke Laws (Sunderland, England) and Dom Spicer (London, England) were ahead 5-4 in their match against Matthew Weaver and Ruben Fonga at the No. 2 spot, but that contest went unfinished as the Warriors already earned the opening point.
SINGLES
The first three singles matches all went the way of the hosts, which granted Wayne State the Tuesday triumph.
Playing in singles at the No. 4 position was Denali Kitayama (West Bloomfield Township, Mich. / Walled Lake Central (United States Air Force Academy)), who completed his match with Weaver in under an hour. The second-year Warrior won by set scores of 6-1 and 6-2.
Grey, ranked 11th in Division II for singles, drew a challenging opponent in the third-ranked Fonga. However, the senior was up for the task, as Grey downed his Tiffin rival in straight sets (6-3 and 6-4) to grab WSU's third point of the afternoon. The result was also Grey's 10th victory of the season at the top position.
Finishing the action for the day was Drenth (ranked No. 13) at the second position with his 7-5, 6-4 triumph vs. Gurtner. It was the junior's third consecutive win in singles.
Spicer and Telford battled one another at the No. 3 spot. The TU student-athlete won the opening set 7-5 and was leading 4-1 in the second when action went unfinished.
The No. 5 singles spot was just beginning when the overall match ended. Benjamin Hill (Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) was in front 2-1 in the very early going against Maxime Navrotchi.
Unlike the fifth flight, the sixth flight never truly started. Laws was scheduled to face Driesner, but no points were ever recorded (0-0).
UP NEXT
Wayne State will play back-to-back matches in back-to-back days in Lima, Ohio. WSU will first square off with NAIA member Northwestern Ohio on Thursday at 4 p.m. from the Westwood Tennis and Fitness Center.
NOTE:Â As of March 29, these two matches at UNOH and vs. CWRU were deemed exhibition matches for the Warriors.
Â
