Sunday, April 14
Lewisburg, Pa.
4:00 PM

Lehigh University

4
at
2

Bucknell University

Zack Elliott 414

Lehigh closes out regular season with 4-2 win at Bucknell

4/14/2019 9:33:00 PM | Men's Tennis

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Lehigh men's tennis team closed out the regular season with a hard-fought 4-2 win over Bucknell Sunday in a match that was moved inside the Central PA Tennis Center. The Mountain Hawks won two tightly-contested doubles matches and then battled back after the Bison claimed the first two singles points to win the final three singles matches, to conclude a 2-0 Patriot League weekend.
 
Freshman Zack Elliott won in both doubles and singles to lead the Mountain Hawks, who finish the regular season at 12-7 overall and 5-2 in the Patriot League. Bucknell is now 12-12, 5-3 in league matches.
 
Doubles play began with Bucknell getting a 6-1 win at the No. 2 flight, but Elliott and sophomore Harry Wang battled to a 7-5 win over Max McDonald and Marwan Abaza to even things at 1-1. The decisive match at No. 3 doubles came down to a tiebreak with sophomore Jacob Edelchik and senior George Cooper winning a tiebreak 7-2 to defeat Cooper Bradshaw and Ethan Jacobs 7-6.
 
Bucknell won five of the first six first sets in singles play and picked up straight set wins at the top flight and No. 5 to go up 2-1 in the match.
 
Senior Christopher Auteri pulled Lehigh even with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Bradshaw at No. 6. Classmate Bryant Born put the Mountain Hawks in front, rallying after dropping the first set at No. 4 in a tiebreak to Andrei Vitiuc before winning the next two by 6-3 scores.
 
Elliott clinched the win for Lehigh by rallying from a set down to beat McDonald 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2.
 
"It was a tightly-contested doubles point and Bucknell came out firing, winning five of the six first sets in singles," Lehigh head coach Wouter Hendrix said. "Our men showed a lot of heart today against a very good Bucknell team."
 
With the regular season complete, Lehigh will now shift focus to the Patriot League Tournament, which for the Mountain Hawks will begin with a quarterfinal matchup Friday at West Point, N.Y. against an opponent still to be determined. Lehigh will likely be the No. 3 seed and if so will face the No. 6 seed.
 
Lehigh 4, Bucknell 2
Doubles
1. Wang/Elliott (Lehigh) def. McDonald/Abaza (Bucknell) 7-5
2. Vitiuc/Jurist (Bucknell) def. Auteri/Martin-Dyer (Lehigh) 6-1
3. Edelchik/Cooper (Lehigh) def. Bradshaw/Jacobs (Bucknell) 7-6 (2)
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
 
Singles
1. Ethan Jacobs (Bucknell) def. Harry Wang (Lehigh) 6-1, 6-4
2. Zack Elliott (Lehigh) def. Max McDonald (Bucknell) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
3. Marwan Abaza (Bucknell) vs. Jack Martin-Dyer (Lehigh) 6-3, 3-6, 4-2, DNF
4. Bryant Born (Lehigh) def. Andrei Vitiuc (Bucknell) 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3
5. Ryan Jurist (Bucknell) def. George Cooper (Lehigh) 6-3, 6-3
6. Christopher Auteri (Lehigh) def. Cooper Bradshaw (Bucknell) 6-3, 7-5
Order of finish: 1, 5, 6, 4, 2
 
 
 
 
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