GEORGETOWN, Texas – Rain delays and location changes did not phase the No. 15 Washington University in St. Louis men's tennis team on Wednesday, as the Bears picked up a 4-3 win over No. 9 Swarthmore. With the win, WashU improves to 3-4 on the season while the Garnet falls to 4-4.
WashU got things off to a fast start in doubles as junior
Nathan Tam and sophomore
Drew Koval got the 6-3 win at No. 3 doubles over Max Linstrom and Winston Zhang. Seniors
Eric Kuo and
Colin Scruggs turned and clinched the doubles point for the Bears with their 6-4 win at No. 2 doubles.
Purushotham Koduri and Michael Melinkov needed extra games to prevent the doubles sweep as they escaped with a 7-5 win over senior
Colin Fox and first-year
Jeremy Sieben.
It was a quick turnaround for singles, but Sieben did not mind as he put the Bears ahead 2-0 with his 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 3. The Garnet would cut that lead in half with a win at No. 4 singles before sophomore
Avi Mahajan put the Bears one match away from the win, 3-1, with his 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 5.
Swarthmore answered right back, picking up straight-set wins at both No. 1 and No. 6 singles to tie the match at 3-3.
The match came down to No. 2, where Scruggs dropped his opening set, 4-6, before rebounding and forcing a third set, 6-4. Carrying the momentum from the second set, Scruggs clinched the win for WashU with a 6-4 third set win, as the Bears earned the 4-3 win over the top-10 Garnet.
WashU will be back in action on Thursday, Mar. 12, against UAA opponent No. 3 Case Western Reserve at 10 a.m. back on the campus of Southwestern University in Georgetown.
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