SEATTLE – The Washington men's tennis team pulled out a victory against East Tennessee State today at the Nordstrom Tennis Center, winning 5-2.
Piers Foley and Enzo Sommer were the first to finish in doubles, grabbing the win 6-2 against Ismael Merino and Diego Nunez. Jake Douglas and Wendell Watanabe fell on court two 6-3 to Rogerio Ribeiro and David Biosca, while Mitch Stewart and Kawika Lam defeated Sebastian Yllera and Robert Herrera shortly after to clinch the doubles point 6-4.
“It was a very hard fought match,” said head coach Matt Anger. “We played them last year and we got more of the same since they returned five of the six starters. I'm happy that we hung tough in the doubles since we didn't start great. After being down 3-0 Kawika and Mitch battled back and won six of the last seven games.”
No. 122 Gal Hakak wasted no time in singles as he grabbed the win on court two, turning in a dominating 6-0, 6-0 result over Nunez. Sebastian Hawken fell 6-3, 6-3 against Herrera but Sommer grabbed a point back against Yllera, winning 6-4, 6-4 to put the Dawgs up 3-1.
After battling back in the first set to win 7-5, No. 121 Jake Douglas clinched the match with a 6-2 second set to put the Dawgs up 4-1. No. 84 Mitch Stewart came out on top in a tough match 7-5, 2-6, (10-7) against David Biosca, with Piers Foley falling to close out the night 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 to Ricardo Pabon to bring the final score to 5-2 Huskies.
“We've been improving, so it was good to get some reward from that,” said Anger. “I was really impressed with the top of our lineup since we know that they have some strong players, and we had to fight hard but we were up for the challenge, and we were tough.”
The Huskies will be back in action Sunday against Pennsylvania at noon, and will host Campus Kids Day, with a Meet & Greet and autograph session following the match. There will also be a prize giveaway for all kids in attendance, face painting available, as well as a free “W” stencil for bringing your racquet.
If you can't make Sunday's match, you can follow along with the live stream and scoring at GoHuskies.com. Keep up to date with the team by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
Results:
No. 45 Washington – 5
East Tennessee St – 2
Doubles:
Court 1 – (UW) Foley/Sommer def. (ETSU) Merino/Nunez 6-2
Court 2 – (ETSU) Ribeiro/Biosca def. (UW) Douglas/Watanabe 6-3
Court 3 – (UW) Lam/Stewart def. (ETSU) Yllera/Herrera 6-4
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3
Singles:
Court 1 – (UW) No. 84 Stewart def. (ETSU) Biosca 7-5, 2-6, (10-7)
Court 2 – (UW) No. 122 Hakak def. (ETSU) Nunez 6-0, 6-0
Court 3 – (UW) No. 121 Douglas def. (ETSU) Ribeiro 7-5, 6-2
Court 4 – (UW) Sommer def. (ETSU) Yllera 6-4, 6-4
Court 5 – (ETSU) Herrera def. (UW) Hawken 6-3, 6-3
Court 6 – (ETSU) Pabon def. (UW) Foley 7-5, 2-6, 6-4
Order of Finish: 2, 5, 4, 3, 1, 6
