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Wayne State University Athletics

3
Tiffin University TU (20-9)
4
Winner Wayne State WSUM (15-10)
Tiffin University TU
(20-9)
3
Final
4
Wayne State WSUM
(15-10)
Winner
Luke Laws vs. Tiffin at NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinals (05/13/2024)
Ferris State Athletics
Luke Laws clinched the match for WSU with his singles triumph vs. TU on Monday.

Match Recap: Men's Tennis | | Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Men's Tennis Remains in Contention After 4-3 Win Over #37-Tiffin in NCAA Midwest Regional

The Warriors will face #44-Grand Valley State on Tuesday with a trip to Florida at stake.

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. -- The No. 20-ranked Wayne State University men's tennis squad (15-10 overall) was able to fend off a late rally from No. 37-ranked Tiffin University (20-9 overall) to defeat the Dragons 4-3 in the NCAA Midwest Regional on Monday evening at the FSU Racquet & Fitness Center.

WSU will next advance to the final round of the regional on Tuesday morning against No. 44-ranked Grand Valley State.  The Lakers, seeded seventh in the Midwest, pulled off a 4-0 upset triumph against the host Ferris State program (seeded second) in Monday's first contest in Big Rapids.

Wayne State, the No. 3 seed, and Tiffin, the No. 6 seed, met for the second time this campaign.  The Green and Gold previously handled TU by a 4-0 margin on March 26.  The team moved one step closer to clinching a spot in the NCAA Tournament Round of 16 in Altamonte Springs, Fla., and Sanlando Park with its victory.

It was a long afternoon for the Warriors and Dragons, with their match beginning 30 minutes after the scheduled start time due to the previous FSU and GVSU contest running late.  Then, WSU and TU began doubles before a rain delay pushed the affair from the outdoor tennis courts of Big Rapids High School to the indoor FSU Racquet & Tennis Center.

DOUBLES
In what proved to be a critical doubles point, Wayne State won both completed contests through the delay to claim a 1-0 advantage.

The match at the No. 1 flight was a top-20 ranked showdown, with the No. 20-ranked TU duo of Michael Gurtner and Matthew Telford drawing the top doubles tandem in Division II of Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany).  The WSU dynamic team managed a 6-1 victory at the position.

The Green and Gold's No. 27-ranked pairing of Luke Laws (Sunderland, England) and Dom Spicer (London, England) also claimed a win, as the tandem downed Matthew Weaver and Ruben Fonga by a 6-4 tally to officially fire the opening salvo on the day.

WSU's other doubles team of Joe Steele (Beverly Hills, Mich. / U. of Detroit Jesuit) and Emil Mikkelsen (Soenderborg, Denmark) were unable to finish their matchup with Martin Driesner and Cyrille Colomb.  The Tiffin team held a slim 6-5 edge when action was stopped.

SINGLES
WSU did enough in singles with three wins in six contests to narrowly edge out the Dragons for a spot in the regional finals.

TU's Colomb was triumphant in the first finished affair, as the Dragons' player downed Denali Kitayama (West Bloomfield Township, Mich. / Walled Lake Central (United States Air Force Academy)) by set scores of 6-0 and 6-2 at the No. 4 position.

Drenth, the No. 14-ranked singles player in the nation, managed a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Gurtner at the second flight to put WSU ahead 2-1 in the match.

The Warriors moved ahead 3-1 following Spicer's two-set win over Telford.  The final scores at the No. 3 spot were 6-2 and 6-4.

However, Tiffin was not done just yet and knotted the score at 3-3 with the next two matchups.  Grey, the fifth-ranked player in the country, drew a challenging opponent in Fonga -- who came into the match ranked fourth in Division II.  The TU student-athlete reeled off set wins of 6-1 and 7-6 (7-3) at the No. 1 flight.

Mikkelsen fell by matching 6-3 scores to Driesner at the sixth spot to keep the Dragons in contention.

That left the results of the affair in the hands of Laws, who was squaring off with Maxime Navrotchi at the No. 5 spot.  The veteran Laws, now a graduate student, used his experience to his advantage in defeating his opponent 7-5, 6-3 to ensure that the Green and Gold's season would continue for at least one more day.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will battle with GVSU on Tuesday at 11 a.m. (pushed back an hour due to the weather delay on Monday) for a spot in the NCAA Round of 16 in Altamonte Springs, Fla.  WSU defeated the Lakers twice earlier this season, including a 4-3 decision on April 12 and a 4-2 final in the GLIAC Tournament on April 27.

 
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