Netters Begin Spring Break Run With Two Wins

The Oglethorpe University men's tennis team topped Otterbein on Tuesday morning in Orlando, Florida, 8-1. The Petrels followed that up with an afternoon win over Northwestern Ohio, 6-3.

Against Otterbein, the number one doubles combination of Ross Beall and Brad White were eked out by their opponents 9-7 but the Petrels got wins at numbers two and three and then swept the singles competition for the win. Felix Mann and Bryan Bailey won 8-3 and Alex Biffle and Tim Tanko combined to win 8-0 to close out the doubles matches 2-1 in Oglethorpe's favor.

The Petrels then sprinted past Otterbein in singles with Mann (6-1, 6-0), Beall (6-1, 6-0), Biffle (6-0, 6-0), Bailey (6-0, 6-0), White (6-1, 6-2) and Lawrence Sweatman (6-4, 6-3) all winning easily in that order.

Against Northwestern Ohio, the Petrels dropped two of three doubles matches before rallying to win 5 of 6 singles matches for the victory. Mann and Bailey (9-7) secured the lone doubles point while the combos of White and Beall (8-1) and Biffle and Tanko (9-7) each fell.

The Petrels stormed back in the singles, however, getting wins from Mann (3-6, 6-3, 10-8), Beall (6-3, 6-3), Biffle (6-0, 6-0), Bailey (6-1, 6-1) and White (6-0, 6-2) to secure the match. Tanko (6-4, 6-2) battled at number five singles before going down in the lone singles loss for Oglethorpe.

The wins make it four in a row for Oglethorpe and raises their record to 7-3 on the season. Oglethorpe faces Luther tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. before playing another doubleheader on Thursday during spring break week.