ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. -- The 20th-ranked and 11th-seeded Wayne State University men's tennis team (17-10 overall) rallied to win the final two matches and upset ninth-ranked and sixth-seeded Washburn University (20-5 overall) 4-3 on Tuesday afternoon in an NCAA Division 2 national round of 16 match. The Warriors advance to face top-ranked (according to the ITA) and second-seeded Saint Leo (23-3 overall) at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. The Lions upended Queens College (NY) 4-0 in a round of 16 match on Tuesday.
Today's triumph marked the second win against WU for the Warriors this year as Wayne State notched a 4-1 triumph in a neutral site match (Indianapolis, Ind.) on February 10th. Washburn entered today's match-up having won five straight, while today's victory extends WSU's win streak to three and six of the last seven.
QUOTING HEAD COACH BRYAN MORROW
"That was perhaps the best college tennis match I've ever been a part of. We played great in doubles got the win against nationally-ranked team. Dom and Luke played so clean and won pretty quickly. Our third doubles battled hard and one doubles just found a way being down a break. It's just unbelievable how they stepped up in the biggest moments.
"Then in singles, we were down first sets at one, at two, at four, at five and at six. There were a lot of moments where you didn't know if they could get it done. But Cedric, Daniel, Dom, and Denali - the fight they showed is just something to be proud of. I literally could not be prouder or happier for these guys or the program. These guys have just been the heart and soul of the tennis program now for three or four years. Everybody should get a chance to watch the way these guys fought down here today and see what they did, because it's inspirational. They're amazing and that Washburn team is really good. That team (Washburn) is really, really good. We just beat a really, really good team. I could not be happier and prouder for the boys. They earned it and hopefully Wayne State is as equally as proud.'
DOUBLES
The Warriors No. 2 doubles tandem of graduate students
Dom Spicer (London, England / Soto Tennis Academy) and
Luke Laws (Sunderland, England / Southmoor Academy) began the match with a 6-3 triumph. The English pair was ranked No. 27 nationally, while the Ichabods duo of Daniel Bird and Sebastian Pjontek was ranked 43rd by the ITA.
Washburn evened doubles at 1-1 with a 6-3 win at third doubles by Santiago Rendon and Pavlos Parson against the Warrior tandem of seniors
Emil Mikkelsen (Soenderborg, Denmark / Soenderborg Statsskole) and
Joe Steele (Beverly Hills, Mich. / U. of Detroit Jesuit).
The doubles point then came down to two top-10 duos in Wayne State's No. 1-ranked pair of senior
Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany / Gutenberg) and junior
Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany / Altkönigschule Kronberg) and Washburn's 10th-ranked tandem of Matthew Earle and Tim Hammes. Grey and Drenth posted a 7-5 triumph to secure the doubles point for the Warriors.
SINGLES
The Ichabods then grabbed a 2-1 advantage with victories at No. 5 and No. 6 singles. WSU freshman
Benjamin Hill (Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany / Burgau-Gymnasium) fell 6-3, 6-1 at fifth singles, while Mikkelsen dropped a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 decision at sixth singles.
Senior
Denali Kitayama (West Bloomfield Township, Mich. / Walled Lake Central) evened the match at 2-2 by ralling to win the final two sets (6-3, 6-3) at No. 4 singles after dropping the opening set (6-1) to No. 42-ranked Rendon.
Washburn regained the lead at 3-2 with a three-set win (4-6, 7-6, 6-3) at third singles by 69th-ranked Parson against Spicer.
Drenth, who entered the match ranked No. 14, rallied to win the final two sets (6-3, 6-4) against #34-Pjontek after the Washburn player took the opening set 6-4.
The final match still on the court was a pair of top-13 players in the country in WSU's No. 5-ranked Grey vs. Washburn's No. 13-Hammes. Hammes won the first set 6-4, before Grey grabbed the second set 7-5. The third set was tied 6-6 forcing a 12-point tiebreaker with Grey coming out victorious 7-5 to win the third set 7-6.
UP NEXT
Wayne State and Saint Leo have met six times previously, all during WSU's spring break trip to Florida, with the Lions coming out victorious in every encounter (all of which were played on Saint Leo's home courts) - 7-2 in 2014, 8-1 in 2018, 6-1 in 2019, 6-1 in 2020, 5-2 in 2022, and 6-1 in 2023.
