Sports > February 14, 2008

By Alex Botoman | Staff writer

The No. 11 ranked men’s tennis team’s hot 3-0 start to the season fizzled out last weekend as they lost road matches to No. 3 Ohio State and No. 34 VCU. The Deacons now fall to 3-2 on the season.

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Wake’s first challenge of the weekend came against Ohio State (8-0) in Columbus, Ohio on Feb. 8. The undefeated Buckeyes sported an impressive lineup that included four singles players ranked in the top 100 in the nation, including the No. 6 ranked Justin Kronauge.

The match got off to an inauspicious start as Ohio State swept the doubles matches. Ohio State’s No. 29 ranked team of Kronauge and Drew Eberly defeated Wake’s No. 44 ranked pair of senior Mariusz Adamski and junior Carlos Salmon 8-6 at the No. 1 doubles position.

At the No. 2 position Bryan Koniecko and Steven Moneke beat Wake Forest’s No. 21 ranked duo of sophomore Steve Forman and junior Cory Parr 8-4. Matt Allare and Shuhei Uzawa rounded out the doubles matches for the Buckeyes by taking down freshman Iain Atkinson and sophomore Andrew Brasseaux 8-5.

No. 91 ranked Forman evened the match for Wake with his 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 win over No. 85 Koniecko at the No. 2 singles position. However, this would be the extent of the Deacons’ success for the day.

At the No. 3 singles position, No. 60 Moneke defeated Adamski 6-4, 6-2. No. 64 Parr put up a fight for the Deacs in the first set of the No. 1 singles match against the No. 6 Kronauge but eventually succumbed 7-6(1), 6-3.

No. 95 Eberly clinched the match for the Buckeyes with his 6-4, 7-6(2) win over Brasseaux at the No. 6 position.

Ohio State tacked on an additional point through Allare’s 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 win over Atkinson at the No. 5 position. The No. 4 singles match between Uzawa and freshman Jonathan Wolff was abandoned with Wolff leading 3-6, 6-3, 3-2.

The Deacons didn’t have much time to linger on their loss as they traveled to take on VCU (7-1) on Feb. 10 in Richmond, Va. Once again the Deacs got off to a slow start in the doubles matches.

At the No. 1 position Sebastien Ripoll and Emil Lindgren took down Adamski and Salmon 8-6. Wake picked up a win at the No. 2 position by virtue of Parr and Forman’s 8-6 victory over Martin Shulhauser and Thibaut Charron. The Rams clinched the doubles point with Stepan Siska and Bobo Delemark’s 9-7 win at the No. 3 position.

VCU picked up another point at the No. 3 singles position with No. 33 ranked Damien Lacombe taking down Adamski 6-1, 6-1.

Following Forman’s win against Ohio State, Head Coach Jeff Zinn bumped him up from the No. 2 singles spot, where he had played in the previous four matches, to the No. 1 singles position. The move paid off as he defeated Shulhauser 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Parr evened the match at 2-2 for the Deacs with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Charron at the No. 2 position. Determined not to let the Buckeyes beat them twice, Wolff took down Siska 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-1 at the No. 4 position to give Wake a 3-2 lead.

However, the match was far from over as Lindgren beat Brasseaux 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 6 spot, leaving the match to be decided by the No. 5 singles competition. VCU secured the upset through Alex Israel’s 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over sophomore Jason Morgenstern to earn the 4-3 victory for the Rams.

The Deacs will be back in action at the Indoor Tennis Center as they take on East Tennessee State and Brown on Feb. 16 and South Carolina on Feb. 17.