NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's tennis program dropped a close 4-5 decision to Johnson & Wales University (JWU) on Saturday afternoon in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference matchup.
With the loss the Cadets drops to 6-2 on the year and 1-1 in GNAC play. JWU improves to 6-2 on the season and 1-1 in the conference. Because of a three-way tie with JWU, Norwich, and Suffolk all finishing 1-1 in league play, it all comes down to the tiebreaker in which the total number of games won by each team determines the rankings. In this case, Suffolk has accumlated 10 points with Norwich earning nine. Johnson & Wales finished third with eight points. Therefore, Suffolk and Norwich advances into the postseason play against each other. The second tiebreaker between Suffolk and Norwich comes down to head-to-head matchup and because the Cadets edged Suffolk in the regular season, 5-4, Norwich will host the Rams on Wednesday, April 22 at a time to be determined.
The day started with the Wildcats winning two of the three doubles matches. Sophomore Ian Hyte (Marblehead, Mass.) partnered up with senior Ryan Grindle (Essex Junction, Vt.) to claim the No. 1 doubles title 8-6 over JWU's Andre Barbero (Brielle, N.J.) and Nicholas Auffret (Holtsville, N.Y.). Senior Patrick Ogden (Madison, Ala.) and freshman Marc-Olivier Tourigny (Drummondville, Quebec) battled out the No. 2 doubles but fell short, 9-7, to duo Jason Chavenson (Upper Dublin, Pa.) and Taylor Farmer (Carmel, Ind.). No. 3 doubles had similar effect with Jay Carter (Glassboro, N.J.) and Jeff Purdy (Grantham, N.H.) pushed their way through the tiebreaker only to come up short to Mariusz and Grzegorz Wala (Woonsocket, R.I.), 9-8 (10-8).
With the Wildcats ahead 2-1 after doubles play, the Cadets looked to battle their way through the singles match but JWU's Barbero would pick up the No. 1 singles for the Wildcats, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 over Grindle. At No. 2 singles, Tourigny pulled off the 6-1, 6-0 victory over Auffret, while Hyte dominated past the Wildcats' Mariusz Wala in No. 3 play, 6-1, 6-2 to tie it at three points apiece.
JWU would take the lead once again after Chavenson defeated Ogden in a 6-4, 6-1 decision before Carter needed a tiebreak to defeat Farmer, 6-7 (9-7) at No. 5 singles to tie it once again. The Wildcats would clinch the victory after winning No. 6 singles when Jorge Mancebo (Santiago, Dominican Republic) needed a third set to defeat Jeff Purdy (Grantham, N.H.) with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 decision to seal the fifth win of the day for JWU.
Norwich will travel to Johnson State College on April 20 in a non-conference matchup to close out the 2015 regular season. Start time is slated at 4:00 p.m.
