MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's tennis team defeated visiting Bethany (W.Va.) College 7-2 Thursday (April 15) afternoon at the Beren Tennis Center. [Box Score]

The Pioneers, who sweep the season series with their non-conference foe, improved to 5-3. The Bison fell to 2-9.

Senior Andrew Bolton (Timonium, Md., Calvert Hall) and sophomore Josh Patterson (Jefferson, Jefferson) teamed up to win their team-best third match at first singles. The duo won 8-4 to improve to 3-4 together on the season. Junior Chad Gardner (Cambridge, Cambridge) and junior Will Jaques (South Yarmouth, Mass., Chatham), playing together for the first time this year, won 8-1 at third doubles to give the Pioneers a 2-1 advantage heading into singles play.

Marietta won five of the six points at singles. Junior Ryan Wong (Granville, Granville) won 6-1, 6-3 at second singles. Bolton picked up another point with his 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-3) victory at third singles. Junior Mike Carpenter (Parkersburg, W.Va., Parkersburg) won his match at fourth singles by the score of 6-2, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8) to improve to 5-4 on the year. Freshman Taimur Ahmed (Islamabad, Pakistan, Froebels International) defeated his opponent 6-0, 6-2 at fifth singles, while Gardner wrapped up the win with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at sixth singles.

The Pioneers return to the court and Ohio Athletic Conference action when Heidelberg University visits Saturday (April 17) for a match that is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.