March 19, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. - The Endicott College men's tennis team opened its 2009 campaign in Orlando, Florida on Thursday afternoon, dropping a pair of contests to Illinois Wesleyan and Merrimack College. The win by the Titans improved their record to 2-5 while Merrimack upped its mark to 6-2 overall.
The Gulls began the day against Illinois Wesleyan, quickly jumping out to a 1-0 lead as the doubles team of Dan Murray (Coventry, R.I.) and Josh Schoen (Phoenix, Ariz.) downed Dan Chang (Palos Hills, Ill.) and Paul Oehrlein (Des Plaines, Ill.), 9-7. However the strong start wouldn't last as the Titans took the remaining two doubles match-ups with Brian Piotrowski (Palatine, Ill.) and Michael Christison (Morton, Ill.) downing Mike D'Ambra (Barrington, R.I.) and Devon Locke (St. Croix, Virgin Islands), 8-3, and the team of David Dulmage (Algonquin, Ill.) and Steven Hayman (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) getting the best of Scott Teller (Granville, N.Y.) and Porter Williams (Norwalk, Conn.), 8-2.
Josh Schoen was the lone Gull to take a singles match, as he defeated Dan Chang, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Illinois Wesleyan pulled away from there, taking the final four solo competitions.
Unfortunately for Endicott, the Gulls suffered a similar outcome in their evening contest against Merrimack College. The Warriors ran to the table to hand Endicott a 9-0 defeat. The highlight of the night was a thrilling battle amongst the two teams top singles players. Josh Schoen was eventually edged by Rishi Rajpal (New Delhi, India), 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 with the tiebreaker extending to 10 points with Rajpal eventually claiming victory, 10-5.
Endicott looks to rebound on Friday as the Gulls continue their southern swing with a 12:30 p.m. match against Saint Joseph's.
