Wooster Falls to Witt 5-2, But Saldanha Beats Nationally-Ranked Opponent

Nilesh Saldanha

The College of Wooster's Nilesh Saldanha kept his perfect season alive at No. 1 singles (9-0) on Thursday afternoon (April 3), despite playing a nationally-ranked opponent, however, as a team, Wittenberg University got the best of Wooster 5-2 in non-divisional men's tennis action.

Expected to be a close match between two of the best players in the North Coast Athletic Conference, Saldanha had a relatively easy time with Casey Clagett, who is No. 17 in NCAA Div. III in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, posting a 6-2, 6-3 straight-set win.

The Scots (4-5) got another singles point out of Alec Garnett at the No. 4 position, as he pulled out a victory over Wittenberg's Mike Herzog in the closest match of the afternoon, taking a third-set tiebreaker 7-5. They split the first two sets 6-3 and 6-3.

However, the rest of the singles matches went to the Tigers (7-3) in straight-sets, following their sweep in the doubles play for that point.

Wooster will next play its first NCAC East Division match of 2003 this Saturday afternoon (April 5), when its hosts Allegheny College (5-10, 1-0 NCAC East) at 1 p.m.