KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Western Michigan men's tennis team picked up its second-straight win in Mid-American Conference play after defeating Ball State, 4-3, at West Hills Athletic club on Saturday afternoon.
The Broncos (13-8, 3-2 MAC) started off by taking the doubles point with a pair of 6-1 wins.
Ashton Adesoro and
Jack Davison moved up to the No. 2 slot from their usual No. 3 and won 6-1 against Nathaniel Webster and Drew Hayward. Freshmen
Oscar Corwin and
Alex Antonopoulos then defeated Sanjin Smith and Ian Brady at No. 3.
The Cardinals tied it up at 1-1 when Webster defeated Adesoro 6-4, 6-0 at No. 1 and then took a 2-1 lead after a 7-5, 6-3 win by Drew Hayward over Davison at No. 5. Sophomore
Matej Kajzer squared the match up at 2-2 after defeating Brady 6-4, 6-4 at No. 6 but the Cardinals retook the lead when Lancaster defeated
Brogan Pierce at No. 2 6-7, 7-5, 6-2. Antonopoulos struck back for the Broncos and tied it up at 3-3 with a 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 win over Smith at No. 4.
The match came down to the No. 3 singles battle between Corwin and BSU's Mason Tran. Tran took the first set, 6-4. Tran was on the verge of the win with a 6-5 lead in the second set but Corwin scored three straight points while down 40-15 to force the tie-breaker. Corwin was up against it with Tran having a match-point advantage three times before Corwin on the marathon set 7-6 (13-11). Corwin then took the third set 6-2 to hand the Broncos the match victory.
Western Michigan is on the road next week, heading to Buffalo on Thursday and Toledo on Sunday.