Results
Philadelphia, PA – The Wagner men's tennis team dropped its non-conference tilt against the Drexel University Dragons, 5-2, at the Drexel Armory on Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, the Seahawks fall to 6-6 on the year while the Dragons improve to 8-3 on the season.
The Seahawks put forth valiant efforts in doubles play on the afternoon. The pairing of freshman
Lucas Lu (Boca Raton, FL/Boca Prep International School) and sophomore
Allen Wang (Clovis, CA/Buchanan) forced a first set tiebreaker against the pairining of Hamza Laalej and Balaji Lakshmanan before the Drexel duo claimed 7-1 victory in the tiebreaker.
After the Dragons claimed victory at No. 2 doubles (6-2), the Seahawks narrowly avoided the three-match sweep as the combo sophomore
Charlton Boyd (Shreveport, LA/Loyola College Prep) and freshman
Ilya Kneppelhout (Woubrugge, Netherlands/Scala College Secondary School) forces the matches second tiebreaker. This one didn't disappoint as Drexel's Vuk Subotic and Xabier Saavedra edged out the Seahawks pairing, 9-7, taking the doubles point.
In singles action, both Kneppelhout and Boyd were victorious. Kneppelhout picked up his team-leading 11th singles victory of the season. After dropping the first set to Balaji Lakshmanan, 2-6, Knepplehout earned a 7-6 decision in the second set after blanking Laskhmanan 7-0 in the second set tiebreaker. The first-year Seahawk closed out the match with a 7-5 triumph in the thrid and final set to give Wagner its first decision of the match.
Boyd was victorious out of the No. 5 flight position, also rallying back from a first set defeat, 3-6. The second-year Seahawk took the second set 6-2 and capped off the win over Sinan Orhon, 10-7, in the third set. Boyd earned his 27th career victory to improve to 27-12 in overall and 21-9 in dual matches for his young career.
The Seahawks will next be in action on March 20, 2016, as they travel to Hackensack, NJ for a Northeast Conference (NEC) match against the Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights. The match is slated for a 10:00 am start.
