Lehigh University
Lafayette
Mountain Hawks down rival Leopards 5-2
4/19/2010 7:45:00 PM | Men's Tennis
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EASTON, Pa. – In its final match of the regular season, Lehigh downed arch rival Lafayette by a 5-2 score Monday afternoon at the Sullivan Courts. The Mountain Hawks shook off a sluggish start to win the doubles point and win four of the six singles matches. Junior Collin Laffey picked up the deciding point with a three set win at No. 2 singles for Lehigh, which improves to 9-11 overall and 2-4 in the Patriot League. The Mountain Hawks will likely be the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Patriot League tournament.
“We won the doubles point but we dug ourselves a big hole in singles as we went down 5-0 or 6-0 in four of the six matches,” explained Lehigh head coach Dave Shook. “It took us some time but we came back once we settled down.
Shook continued, “Lafayette is always a tough place to play but their fans and students were well behaved and their team played a great match. Once we settled down we played much better but the match was very close.”
Lehigh’s top doubles team of Laffey and junior Troy List lost to Doug Gallagher and Eric Wiley but the Mountain Hawks managed wins at the next two flights. Sophomore Ryan Krueger and freshman Matt Savran downed Scott Gelbman and Andrew Morris 8-3 at No. 3 doubles and the team of juniors Cameron Silbert and Arnaldo Pacheco clinched the doubles point for Lehigh with an 8-6 win over Steven Benezra and Justin Haar at No. 2 doubles.
List beat Gallagher at No.1 singles 7-6, 6-1 for Lehigh’s second point, but the big story for the Mountain Hawks was the ability of Laffey and Savran to overcome big deficits to win. Savran spotted Haar a 5-0 lead in the first set at No. 4 singles but then won 12 straight games and went on to win 7-5, 6-1 for Lehigh’s third point.
Laffey was blanked in the first set against Benezra, but rallied to win the second set 6-0 before prevailing 6-4 in the decisive third set to clinch the Mountain Hawks’ second straight win over their rivals. Freshman Andrew Krentz joined List and Laffey in moving to 5-1 in league singles matches with a win at No. 6 singles.
The Mountain Hawks will return to the court Friday in the opening round of the Patriot League tournament in Lewisburg, Pa. Tournament match-ups and times will be finalized on Tuesday but it is believed that Lehigh will be the No. 5 seed and will face the likely No. 4 seed Colgate.
Lehigh 5, Lafayette 2
Doubles
1. Gallagher/Wiley (LC) def. List/Laffey (LU) 8-5
2. Silbert/Pacheco (LU) def. Benezra/Haar (LC) 8-6
3. Krueger/Savran (LU) def. Gelbman/Morris (LC) 8-3
Singles
1. Troy List (LU) def. Doug Gallagher (LC) 7-6, 6-1
2. Collin Laffey (LU) def. Steven Benezra (LC) 0-6, 6-0, 6-4
3. Scott Gelbman (LC) def. Leland Richardson (LU) 6-3, 7-5
4. Matt Savran (LU) def. Justin Haar (LC) 7-5, 6-1
5. Andrew Morris (LC) def. Ryan Krueger (LU) 6-2, 6-2
6. Andrew Krentz (LU) def. James Murphy (LC) 6-4, 4-6, 10-4
