LAKELAND, Fla. – No. 25 Indiana Wesleyan University men’s tennis trailed 4-1 at Southeastern (Fla.) on Wednesday in the final match of their Spring Break Trip. IWU rallied and won the final four singles matches to pull out a 5-4 victory.
MATCH VITALS
Score: Indiana Wesleyan def. Southeastern, 5-4
Records: Indiana Wesleyan 19-6 | Southeastern 6-5
Location: Beerman Family Tennis Center | Southeastern University | Lakeland, Florida
DOUBLES
No. 1: Eli Steiner/Grant Yager (IWU) def. Lucca/Santiago (SEU) 8-5
No. 2: Felipe/Thomas (SEU) def. Diego Freire/Riley Worland (IWU) 8-6
No. 3: Hugo/Enrique (SEU) def. Tyler Abbott/Grant Esposito (IWU) 8-2
SINGLES
No. 1: Eli Steiner (IWU) def. Felipe Barbosa (SEU) 7-6, 7-5
No. 2: Diego Freire (IWU) def. Santiago Haas (SEU) 7-6, 6-3
No. 3: Grant Esposito (IWU) def. Lucca Marcheschi (SEU) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2
No. 4: Enrique Martinez (SEU) def. Riley Worland(IWU) 6-3, 6-0
No. 5: Thomas Ortesa (SEU) def. Tyler Abbott (IWU) 6-1, 6-2
No. 6: Andrew Block (IWU) def. Tyler Gromami (SEU) 6-1, 5-7, 6-2
COACH SHIGLEY SAYS…
“The men started slow in doubles play and dug ourselves into a 2-1 deficit. However, credit needs to go to Southeastern, they are an excellent doubles team. We then lost the first two singles matches to put us down 4-1. This set the stage for an epic comeback. Eli fought off a 5-2 deficit in the second set to win his match to get us to 4-2. Espo came back from losing the first set to roll in the next two sets, to make it 4-3. Diego had a tough match at No. 2, winning the first set 11-9 in the tiebreaker and getting the second set at 6-3 to put the match even at 4-4. It all came down to Andrew Block at No. 6. Andrew was able to pull out a third set victory to give us the win at 5-4. The men had incredible courage and fight today. They never lost hope, never gave up, and just kept doing the right things to stay in the match. This was a sweet victory for us today.”
UP NEXT FOR MEN’S TENNIS
Indiana Wesleyan takes a break for nine days and returns to action on March 15 at No. 21 Northwestern Ohio. The match begins at 4 p.m. in Lima, Ohio.
