Wooster Wins Four of Six Matches in Hilton Head

The College of Wooster men’s tennis team extended its season-opening win streak to six before dropping back-to-back matches to regionally-ranked foes, closing out its annual 10-day spring break trip to Hilton Head, S.C. with a 4-2 record.

The Fighting Scots, 6-2 now on the season, kicked things off down south with a 4-3 victory over Hobart College, with Ted Hickey prevailing in a third-set tiebreaker at No. 5 singles (4-6, 6-3, 7-6) to clinch the match. That was followed by regional wins over Hope College (5-2) and the Univ. of Wis.-Eau Claire (4-3), sandwiched around a 7-0 shutout of St. Lawrence University.

Then, Wooster ran into two of the toughest opponents it will face all year in the University of Chicago and Carleton College, currently ranked No. 8 and No. 9, respectively, in the Central Region. Chicago blanked the Scots 7-0, despite a third doubles win for Grant D’Augustine and Pat Grab (8-3) and two singles matches going three sets, while Wooster picked up one point on Carleton for a 6-1 setback.

The key to the Scots success was its depth. While Will Morrison won twice at No. 1 singles and Dave Albrechta went 3-3 at the second spot, Wooster was a combined 14-10 from positions No. 3 to No. 6. Brian Ebbitts posted four individual victories, primarily at No. 3 singles, and extended his Chicago opponent to three sets. In addition to his key victory in the Hobart match, Hickey contributed two others as well as a close loss versus Chicago at No. 4 singles (6-7, 6-4, 8-10). Also, Tim Wyatt produced three important wins in the bottom-third of the singles lineup and Jeremy Dominik had a noteworthy triumph at No. 6 singles against Hope (3-6, 7-5, 6-3).

In doubles action, the pair of Ebbitts and Hickey started every match at No. 1 and won three times, while D’Augustine and Grab went 2-1 together. The other tandem to play at least three matches was Dan Fleszar and Sam Hickey (1-2).

Next for the Scots is their home opener against Ohio Northern University (6-3) this Thursday at 4 p.m.