Oberlin, Ohio - The Oberlin College men's tennis team opened the spring portion of its season with a split on Saturday, first falling to longtime national powerhouse Carnegie Mellon, 8-1, before bouncing back with an 7-0 win over Division II Tiffin.
"I was very happy with what I saw today," Head Coach
Eric Ishida said. "The guys battled and played some very good tennis along the way. I am especially proud of Sean (Billerbeck) getting a big quality win against Carnegie."
Carnegie Mellon Recap
Billerbeck headlined the opening match against the Tartans, who ended the 2021 season ranked 14th in the nation. At No. 1 singles, the Olney, Maryland, native outlasted CMU's Brandon Aprill 6-4, 3-6, 13-11 to knock off the Atlantic South Region's 15th ranked player
Billerbeck and
James Dill also put up strong fight against Raahil Doshi and Matthew Poh in the top doubles bout before falling 8-5. No. 3 doubles was also closely contested as the rookie tandem of
Sebastien Naginski and
Grant North went swing-for-swing against Nicholas Wernink and William Wang before succumbing, 8-6.
In singles action Dill dropped the first set to Doshi 6-1 in the second position but made things much closer in the second set before falling 6-4.
Rohan Gold was dispatched by William Wang by matching 6-3 counts at No. 4 and North also had a tight battle in the opening session in the sixth slot as he ended on the wrong end of 7-5 scoreline before falling 6-2 against Benny Zhou.
Tiffin Recap
The Yeomen breezed through the Dragons doubles tandems, sweeping all three slots to pick up the lone point available in the Division II scoring format.
Dill and Billerbeck blanked Mattia Colli and Benjamin Szarek 6-0 at No. 1 while Naginski and North did the same to Hayden Parisien and Nathan Mansor in the third slot. In the second flight senior
Sam Topper and Gold surrendered just one game in a 6-1 thumping of Timothy Richardson and Alex Thatcher.
The third and fourth singles flights were the first to finish as Topper and Gold did not drop a single point against Richardson and Mansor. Dill would then clinch the match with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Szarek at No. 2 singles.
Billerbeck notched his third win of the day at No. 1 singles as he got by Colli in three sets. The Yeomen junior dropped the first set 2-6 before rallying to win the second 6-4 and the super-breaker 10-7.
Naginski made short work of Thatcher at No. 5 with a 6-1, 6-0 triumph, while North recorded his first-career singles win by beating Parisien by the same 6-1, 6-0 line.
The Yeomen return to action on Friday afternoon as they cross state lines to travel to Hope College in Holland, Michigan for a 3 p.m. clash.
