Thursday, November 14, 2024

Tribe Men’s Tennis Rallies for Ranked Win over Dartmouth

(Tribe Athletics)

WILLIAMSBURG — For the second time in as many weeks, William & Mary needed to rally from a deficit against nationally-ranked Dartmouth. And once again, the Tribe, which moved into the national rankings on Friday, came through by winning the final three singles matches off the court in topping the No. 62 Big Green, 4-3, at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center.

Trailing 3-1, graduate student Konstantinos Raptis and freshman Oliver Hague pulled No. 73 W&M (5-4) even with singles victories at No. 3 and No. 4.

The match came down to No. 2 where graduate student Satchel Benn won the opening set, but trailed Hikaru Takeda, 5-4, in the second. The contest remained on serve and Benn eventually rolled his counterpart in the breaker, 7-3, to secure the Tribe’s fourth win in the last five matches.

How It Happened

  • The Tribe claimed the doubles point for the third-straight match with wins at the top two positions.
  • The reigning CAA Doubles Team of the Week Benn and Hague rolled to a 6-2 victory over Miles Groom and Waleed Qadir at No. 2. The Tribe duo won its fourth in a row and fifth overall at the No. 2 spot.
  • Graduate student Bill Duo and Raptis clinched the initial point of the match for the third-straight contest at No. 1. The Tribe tandem topped Alex Knox-Jones and Henry Ren, 7-5, for their sixth win in the last seven matches. The pair is 6-2 at No. 1.
  • Dartmouth (6-4) started strong in singles, winning at No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6 to take a 3-1 advantage.
  • Raptis won his fourth in a row at the No. 3 spot to start the Tribe comeback. The graduate student dominated in an unblemished 6-0 first-set win. In the second, Dartmouth’s Henry Ren jumped out to a break advantage, but Raptis rallied to claim the victory in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (2). It was his 10th victory overall on the season.
  • Hague avenged a loss to Miles Groom from a week ago at No. 4. The Tribe rookie won the opening set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (6), before pulling W&M even at three with a 6-4 win in the second. Hague won his 15th match of the season and improved to 6-3 on line four.
  • Benn won his third in a row at No. 2, topping Takeda in straight sets to clinch the Tribe victory. He won his 12th match of the season and improved to 4-1 on line two.

Up Next
The Tribe travels to New Jersey for a pair of matches next week. The Green and Gold heads to No. 35 Princeton on Saturday, March 2, at noon, before playing its second CAA match of the season at Monmouth on Sunday, March 3, at 11 a.m.

#73 William & Mary 4, #62 Dartmouth 3

Singles
No. 1 – Carlos Guerrero Alvarez (Dartmouth) def. Alexandre Leblanc (W&M) – 6-4, 6-1
No. 2 – Satchel Benn (W&M) def. Hikaru Takeda (Dartmouth) – 6-3, 7-6 (3)
No. 3 – Konstantinos Raptis (W&M) def. Henry Ren (Dartmouth) – 6-0, 7-6 (2)
No. 4 – Oliver Hague (W&M) def. Miles Groom (Dartmouth) – 7-6 (6), 6-4
No. 5 – Yujiro Onuma (Dartmouth) def. Albert Hansen (W&M) – 6-2, 6-4
No. 6 – Alex Knox-Jones (Dartmouth) def. Nikita Bortnichek (W&M) – 6-1, 6-2
Finishing Order: 6, 1, 5, 3, 4, 2*

Doubles
No. 1 – Duo/Raptis (W&M) def. Knox-Jones/Ren (DC) – 7-5
No. 2 – Benn/Hague (W&M) def. Groom/Qadir (DC) – 6-2
No. 3 – Takeda/Guerrero Alvarez (DC) def. Leblanc/Karman (W&M) – 7-5
Finishing Order: 2, 3, 1*

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