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Wayne State University Athletics

0
Drury DRU-M (10-7)
4
Winner Wayne State WSUM (21-9)
Drury DRU-M
(10-7)
0
Final
4
Wayne State WSUM
(21-9)
Winner
Cedric Drenth vs. Northwood
Marta Komar
Cedric Drenth defeated fifth-ranked Sylvain Garin-Michaud vs. Drury, his second win over a top-five opponent this season.

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

Men's Tennis Defeats Drury 4-0 in NCAA Midwest Region Semifinals

The Warriors will play Southwest Baptist on Saturday with a trip to Orlando, Fla. on the line.

DETROIT -- The No. 11-ranked Wayne State University men's tennis team (21-9 overall) remained alive for a trip to Florida by eliminating No. 41-ranked Drury University (10-7 overall) with a 4-0 victory on Friday inside the Duchene Athletic Facility.

The win was the 11th in a row for the Warriors, who earned the opportunity to host as the two-seed in the NCAA MIdwest Region.  The match was held inside the comforts of the Duchene Athletic Facility after inclement weather forced the match away from the outdoor courts of Detroit Mercy.

It was the second time this season that the two programs played each other.  The Green and Gold outscored the Panthers 10-1 in those two contests.

DOUBLES
WSU prevailed in doubles action for the all-important first point of the day.

First to finish were the third flight duo of Dom Spicer (London, England) and Emil Mikkelsen (Soenderborg, Denmark).  They won 6-1 over Alejandro Esquivel and Oscar Reis.

Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany) were the clinchers for the doubles point.  The second-ranked team faced, and defeated, the No. 14-ranked tandem of Sylvain Garin-Michaud and Marlon Wilken by a score of 6-2.

The two decisions extended winning streaks.  Drenth and Grey earned their 11th consecutive doubles triumph, while Spicer and Mikkelsen nabbed their sixth in a row.

Unable to finish were the No. 2 doubles team of Niklas Karcz (Bottrop, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) and Luke Laws (Sunderland, England).  They were knotted in a 3-3 battle with Mark Drozdetskii and Yaroslav Sharyy when the match was called.

SINGLES
Drenth, Grey, and Spicer were the three victors in singles play for Wayne State.  The squad won despite the Panthers boasting three players in the ITA Top 75 Singles Rankings.

Spicer (the No. 69-ranked singles player in the nation) completed his match first, dispatching of Tjade Bruns 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 4 position to put his team ahead 2-0 in the overall match.

Nearly shutting out his opponent was Grey at the second flight.  The junior blanked No. 36-ranked Sharyy 6-0 in the opening set, then tallied a 6-2 victory in the second to earn a win in straight sets.

In what was the most competitive match of the day, Drenth needed a comeback effort to beat Garin-Michaud and clinch the match.  After falling 6-3 to the fifth-ranked player in the country, the No. 24-ranked sophomore posted a 6-2 triumph to stay alive for a third set.  In the final set, Drenth was able to fend off Garin-Michaud and win 7-5, officially advancing them to the next match.

Advancing their respective individual winning streaks to 11 were Drenth and Grey, while Spicer extended his to seven matches.

Karcz, Laws, and Denali Kitayama (West Bloomfield Township, Mich.) had their matches go unfinished.  At the No. 4 spot, Karcz fell 6-4 to No. 64-ranked Wilken to begin the affair, but posted a 6-3 victory in the second set.  When the match was called, the graduate student was trailing 3-2 in the final set.

Laws earned a 6-4 win in the first set, but his sixth flight contest with Drozdetskii ended early.  Kitayama and Louka Queguiner were playing a tiebreaker in their opening set at the No. 5 spot when play ended.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will play on Saturday at 11 a.m. in the final match of this section of the region.  Their opponent will be three-seeded and No. 19-ranked Southwest Baptist, who defeated Grand Valley State 4-2 in the second game of the day.  The Warriors lost the first meeting between the two programs 4-3 on February 24 in Springfield, Mo.

 
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