MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's tennis team dropped a close nonconference match to visiting Bethany College by the score of 5-4 Tuesday (March 26) afternoon. The Pioneers fall to 5-7 on the season, while Bethany improves to 5-2 overall.
After splitting the bottom two doubles matches, Bethany No. 1 team of Drake Berlin and Chris Ray edged
Jack Hirschfield (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) and
Shane Spencer (Vermilion, Ohio/Vermilion), 9-7, giving the Bison a 2-1 lead after doubles. Marietta's
Bryce Emerick (Hyndman, Pa./HOPE for Hyndman Charter) and
Will Watson (Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg) beat Geoffrey Foster and Adam Franco at No. 3, 8-2.
Eric DeLong (Lowell, Ohio/Marietta) and
Hanyang Zhang (Beijing, China/Hefei No. 1) fell to Rhone Thrash and Raj Vijayarajah at No. 2, 8-5.
Marietta picked up straight-set wins at Nos. 1 and 3 singles, while Bethany did the same at Nos. 4 and 6.
In the top spot, Spencer topped Ray, 6-0 and 6-1, while DeLong beat Vijayarajah at No. 3 by the same scores. At No. 4, Berlin beat Watson, 6-3 and 6-2. Franco downed Emerick at No.6, 6-0 and 6-1, giving Bethany a 4-3 lead in the team score.
In the No. 2 singles match, Hirschfield won the first set, 7-5, only to drop the next two sets, 6-2 and 6-0, as Thrash won the match and secured the team victory for Bethany.
In the final match, Zhang and Foster split the first two sets with Zhang winning the first, 6-3, and Foster taking the second, 7-6 (7-5). With the team result determined, the pair played a tiebreaker in the third set and with Zhang winning 10-7.
Marietta travels to Frostburg State University for a 1 p.m. match on Sunday (March 31).
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.
