UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The William and Mary men's tennis team suffered a close 5-2 setback at Penn State on Saturday evening. W&M dropped a close doubles point and battled up and down the lineup, before succumbing to the Nittany Lions. Junior
Will Juggins and freshman
Damon Niquet recorded the points for the Tribe with straight-set singles victories. W&M fell to 2-3 on the year, while Penn State won its season opener.
The Green and Gold jumped out to the early advantage in doubles competition thanks to a victory at the No. 1 position. The junior duo of
Aaron Chaffee and
Will Juggins picked up a 6-4 victory over Russell Bader and Leonard Stakovsky to improve to 3-1 at the No. 1 position. The Nittany Lions though rallied behind a pair of close victories at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions to claim the opening point of the match.
Stakovsky pushed the PSU lead to 2-0 with a close 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1 singles against senior
Ben Hoogland. The Tribe got on the board with a straight-set victory from Juggins at the No. 3 post. The Green and Gold junior downed Alex Fennell, 6-3, 6-3, for his fifth win of the season.
After a Nittany Lion victory at No. 4, the home team pulled out a three-set victory at No. 2 to clinch the team triumph. Senior
Ben Guthrie won the opening set in a tiebreaker, 6-5, before PSU's Russell Bader bounced back to win the second, 6-1. In the decisive third set, Bader took the early lead, before Guthrie rallied to even the match. In the third-set tiebreaker, Bader outlasted Guthrie, 6-5, to cement the Nittany Lion win.
Niquet rounded out the Tribe victories with a straight-set triumph at the No. 5 post. The Green and Gold rookie downed Michael Riley, 6-2, 6-5, for his team-leading 10th win of the season. Niquet improved to a team-best 3-1 in dual-match singles competition.
W&M returns to action when it faces St. John's in University Park, Pa., on Saturday, Jan. 25. The match carries a 2 p.m. start time at the Penn State Indoor Tennis Facility.
Penn State 5, William and Mary 2
Singles
No. 1 – Leonard Stakovsky (PSU) def.
Ben Hoogland (W&M) – 6-4, 6-4
No. 2 – Russell Bader (PSU) def.
Ben Guthrie (W&M) – 5-6, 6-1, 6-5
No. 3 –
Will Juggins (W&M) def. Alex Fennell (PSU) – 6-3, 6-3
No. 5 –
Damon Niquet (W&M) def. Michael Riley (PSU) – 6-2, 6-5
No. 6 – Matt Barry (PSU) def.
John Banks (W&M) – 6-2, 6-1
Finishing Order: 1, 3, 4, 2*, 6, 5
Doubles
No. 1 – Chaffee/Juggins (W&M) def. Bader/Stakhovsky (PSU) – 6-4
No. 2 – Trkulja/Reilly (PSU) def. Guthrie/Niquet (W&M) – 6-4
No. 3 – Fennell/Barry (PSU) def. Banks/Hoogland (W&M) – 6-5
Finishing Order; 1, 3, 2*
