HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — It took two days, but the Marietta College men's tennis team won its first match of the spring season Tuesday (March 12) afternoon. The Pioneers started their match against Arcadia University on Monday but rain caused the match to be completed today and Marietta came out on top, 5-4.
With the victory, Marietta is now 3-3 overall. Arcadia slips to 2-7 on the season.
The Pioneers led 4-3 when the match was halted Monday evening. The Nos. 2 and 6 singles matches were still going on when play was suspended.
Jack Hirschfield (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) secured the team victory with a quick decision at No. 2 over Ryan Stellato. Hirschfield was leading 6-2 and 4-4 when the match was stopped. When play resumed today, Hirschfield won two quick sets for the 6-2, 6-4 win.
The No. 6 match between
Bryce Emerick (Hyndman, Pa./HOPE for Hyndman Charter) and Luke Thatcher went to a third set tiebreaker. Emerick won the first set, 6-3, and was trailing in the second, 2-5, when play was suspended. When the match resumed today, Emerick won the first four games to take a 6-5 lead. Thatcher battled back to even the set, 6-6, and then won the tiebreaker, 7-3, forcing the third set 10-point tiebreaker, which he won 10-3.
The Pioneers won two of the three doubles matches on Monday. Hirschfield and
Shane Spencer (Vermilion, Ohio/Vermilion) downed Stellato and Jaime Zeng Zhu at No. 1, 8-1. At No. 3, Emerick and
Hanyang Zhang (Beijing, China/Hefei No. 1) beat Alex Post and Thatcher, 8-6.
Arcadia picked up its first point at No. 2 doubles. Drake Hanak and John Zinzer topped
Eric DeLong (Lowell, Ohio/Marietta) and
Will Watson (Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg), 8-2.
Zhang made it 3-1 Marietta with a quick straight-set win over Post at No. 5 singles, 6-0 and 6-2. The matches at Nos. 1, 3 and 4 all went to a third set 10-point tiebreaker.
In the top spot, Spencer dominated in the tiebreaker to beat Zeng Zhu, 6-3, 1-6 and 1-0 (10-1). Zinzer bested DeLong at No. 3, 6-4, 0-6 and 1-0 (12-10), while Hanak downed Watson at No. 4, 1-6, 6-0 and 1-0 (10-2).
Marietta is back in action on Wednesday (March 13) with a 1:30 p.m. match against Wisconsin Lutheran College.
Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
