Wayne State University Athletics

Marissa Krynak

Denali Kitayama entered Wednesday's match vs. SHU ranked in singles for the first time in his collegiate career (62nd).

Men's Tennis 3/6/2024 10:00:00 PM Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

First Match of Spring Break Trip Ends with 5-2 Win for Men's Tennis

The Warriors defeated Sacred Heart for their second Division I victory of 2024.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Wayne State University men's tennis team began its five-match Spring Break trip over the course of seven days with a 5-2 triumph over Sacred Heart (3-8 overall) on Wednesday afternoon at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.

The match was a neutral site affair held at the location of the 2023 Division II NCAA Championships. SHU is a Division I opponent from the Northeast Conference, which makes the victory the second for WSU over a Division I program (4-3 at Toledo on February 2).

NOTE: As of March 29, this match was deemed as an exhibition for the Warriors, meaning it does not count towards the season record.

DOUBLES
The Green and Gold nabbed the contests at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to emerge with the first point of the event.

Playing with a new partner on Wednesday was Dom Spicer (London, England) as the graduate student teamed up with Denali Kitayama (West Bloomfield Township, Mich. / Walled Lake Central (United States Air Force Academy)) for a 7-6 (8-6) victory. They narrowly defeated the Pioneers' Charlie Levinson and Paul Goncalves.

Benjamin Hill (Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) and Emil Mikkelsen (Soenderborg, Denmark) posted a 6-3 win over Adhurim Tetaj and Milan Karajovic.

Freshly ranked as the fourth-best doubles team in Division II via the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany) lost 6-4 vs. Darius Eftekhar and Matyas Venci.

SINGLES
WSU won four of six singles matches to secure the exhibition victory.

Drenth, ranked 18th in singles by the ITA's new computerized rankings, registered a convincing 6-3, 6-1 triumph against Antoine Hernandez at the second flight.

Also winning in two sets was Hill, who allowed just one game point to his opponent, Karajovic. The final tally at the No. 5 position was 6-1, 6-0.

Spicer and Kitayama both managed hard-fought victories in three sets. Spicer downed Enrique Laennec-Baffrey 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6) at the No. 3 spot, while Kitayama needed two tiebreakers to defeat Arya Alla at the fourth flight. The senior won both of them by scores of 7-6 (8-6) and 7-6 (7-5), and earned the win despite falling 7-5 in the second set.

Kitayama entered the afternoon ranked 62nd in the country in singles, which marked the first time in his WSU career that the Warrior appeared in the rankings.

Grey, ranked 13th in the nation, dropped matching 6-3 sets to Lefteri Apostolou at the first flight, while Joe Steele (Beverly Hills, Mich.) competed at the No. 6 position and fell 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) to Percy Meehan.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will return to Division II competition for the second leg of its five-match Florida journey. WSU will play at Rollins on Thursday in Winter Park, Fla., and Copeland Stadium. The match is set for 3 p.m.

Print Friendly Version