Ben Blotner
Contributing Writer
The College of Wooster men’s tennis team split its two matches at the Aspen Racquet Club on Sunday, dropping a close 5-4 battle against DePauw University before dominating John Carroll University in an 8-1 victory.
Against DePauw, the Scots took four out of six singles matches, but lost all three doubles competitions, allowing the Tigers to squeeze out the win. Nivaan Lobo ’23 and Alex Drewes ’23 came the closest to winning their doubles match, but fell 8-7 after going to a tie- breaker game. Alon Liberman ’22 and Austin Hanna ’22 lost 8-5, while Joaquin Abos Amo ’21 and Nathan Devereux ’20 came up short by a score of 8-4.
The Scots were more successful in singles, winning the majority of the matchups. No. 1 player Hanna was edged out in a close match by DePauw’s Wyatt Metzger ’22, but No. 2 Liberman took down Bryce McClanahan ’21 in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. In the next slot down, Devereux was defeated by Noah Roberts ’21 in another tight battle; however, No. 4 Abos Amo pulled out a close victory against Thomas Partridge ’23. Nebyou Minassie ’22 took straight sets against Will Sultan ’22, 6-3, 7-5, and Drewes came through with a tight win over Jake Watson ’23, giving Wooster wins in the majority of the singles matches. Unfortunately, the Scots’ 4-2 singles record was not enough to off- set the three doubles losses, and DePauw eked out a 5-4 win overall.
Head Coach Zack Hasenyager on the loss said, “We didn’t play badly but caught some unlucky breaks and [DePauw] are talented and we came up on the losing end of all three doubles matches which put us in a hole that proved too difficult to get out from in the end.”
Wooster’s second match of the day against John Carroll was more successful and much less tightly contested. In doubles, the team of Hanna and Liberman bounced back with an easy 8-2 win in the top slot. Abos Amo and Drewes took the only Wooster defeat against the Blue Streaks, but Devereux and Minassie won their match 8-6 to give the Scots an edge going into singles.
After the matches, Minassie expressed confidence and a de- sire to give the team everything he had. “I think I played really well in both of my matches,” he said. “Even though I was tired for my second match, I had to give 100 percent to help my team be victorious.”
Going into singles, the Scots had a leg up from their doubles triumph, which turned out they did not at all need. Wooster won all six singles matches, with the top two matchups producing straight-set victories for the Scots. Taking over the No. 1 slot, Liberman dominated Andy Siciliano ’21 6-3, 6-2, while new No. 2 Hanna took down Kevin Wacnik ’23 6-4, 6-4. Abos Amo again saw success, as he was victorious in three sets over Mark Beebe ’23. Devereux won a strange back-and-forth match over Adi Jha ’20 by a score of 6-1, 1-6, 6-2, and Minassie con- tinued his hot streak by taking straight sets over Andrew Triner ’21. Rounding out a perfect series of singles matches, Lobo was the winner of a three-set battle with Alevero Rosabel ’23. The Scots’ 6-0 singles re- cord meant they cruised to an 8-1 overall victory, earning a split of their two matches on the day.