The 40th-ranked Oglethorpe men's tennis team bounced back from their difficult loss to No. 38 Kalamazoo on Tuesday with an emphatic 8-1 victory over the LaGrange Panthers Wednesday in LaGrange, Georgia. The match served as a make-up of a postponed match from earlier in the season and improved the Stormy Petrels to 7-3 on the year.
Though the Petrels were missing a couple of their regular players, they really didn't miss a beat. They suffered their lone loss at No. 1 doubles, as the standard second team of sophomore Judd Motz and senior Briton Richardson moved up a spot and fell in a hotly-contested match, 9-8 (6). However, the Petrels had no problem at the other doubles matches, winning 8-3 with the normal No. 3 team of freshman Angel Llerena and freshman Richard Johnson at No. 2 and dominating 8-0 at No. 3 with senior Matt Roberson and freshman Michael Allen.
The Petrels went into the singles competition with a 2-1 lead, but took every singles match on the board. The two close contests came at Nos. 2 and 5. Llerena moved up to No. 2 for the day and won a pair of tiebreakers to take his match 7-6 (6), 4-6, 1-0 (4). Roberson also found himself in a fight in the opening set at No. 5, but he eventually came away with a 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory. The Petrels controlled the rest of the matches from the outset, winning 6-4, 6-2 at No. 1 singles with Motz moving up into the top slot for the day. Richardson took down his No. 3 match 6-0, 6-1; Johnson won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 4; and freshman Michael Santaloci played out of his customary No. 6 slot and won 6-0, 6-0.
"This was a very good rebound performance by the men after yesterday's tough loss," said Oglethorpe head coach Peter Howell. "It was nice to get senior Matt Roberson in the lineup today, and he responded with a victory at the No. 5 position. Likewise, it was good to get Richard Johnson back in the singles lineup and he looked sharp at No. 4. I look forward to our conference opener on Friday."
The Petrels will take on Berry Friday at 2:30 p.m. on the Downing Howell Courts in the SAA opener for both sides. The Petrels will then briefly step back out of conference play against Covenant next week before reentering SAA play for the remainder of the campaign.
