Scot Men's Tennis Splits Opening Matches

Nilesh Saldanha

The College of Wooster men's tennis team began its 2002 campaign indoors at Wabash College's Collett Tennis Center on Saturday (Feb. 22), splitting a pair of matches with Wheaton (Ill.) College and the host school. Wooster was able to handle its conference, but non-divisional foe, in Wabash 7-0, but lost 6-1 to a strong Wheaton squad that made the NCAA Div. III Tournament last spring.

The biggest bright spot for the Scots was the play of Nilesh Saldanha at the top of their lineup. The junior won both of his singles matches, topping the best Wheaton had to offer 7-5, 6-1 and nearly shutting out Wabash's No. 1 (6-1, 6-0). He also joined forces with Clint Bailey at the top doubles position and the duo narrowly lost to Wheaton (8-6) and cruised past the Little Giants' best team (8-1).

Bailey, Brandon Lichtman, and Alec Garnett also notched straight-set singles wins against Wabash at No. 2 (6-4, 6-2), No. 3 (7-5, 6-4), and No. 4 (6-2, 6-0), respectively. Nikhil Gonsalves and Tim Wyatt completed the singles sweep for Wooster with respective decisions of 8-4 and 8-2 at the fifth and sixth spots. They played eight-game pro sets due to time constraints.

The Scots' other doubles victory on Saturday came from Cyrus Karimian and Chris Mickelson at the No. 3 spot against the Little Giants (8-6).

Wooster does not play again until its spring break trip to Hilton Head, S.C., in a couple of weeks.