Results vs. Hope l Results vs. Grove City

Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's tennis team suffered a pair of setbacks on Saturday afternoon at the John W. Heisman Field House, falling to Hope College and Grove City College by identical 8-1 counts.

In the morning match against the Flying Dutchmen, sophomore Sam Towne was able to even up his record at No. 3 singles to 1-1 on the year as he battled from a set down to upend Harrison Doezema 6-3 in the second set and 10-6 in the super tiebreaker.

“It was a very nice win for Sam,” Head Coach Adam Shoemaker said. “After dropping the first set 6-4, he was able to bare down and battle back for a very impressive win.”

Sophomores Pedar Davis and Eliot Heaton played at No. 1 doubles for the first time this season and were able to take four games from John Gardner and Bobby Cawood before succumbing to the pair.

With Ben Godlove out of the lineup, sophomore Joe Leffler made his season debut at No. 1 singles, but was unable to challenge Gabe Casher.

In the nightcap against the Wolverines first-year Ben Turchin made an impressive debut in the No. 1 singles slot as he defeated Ricky Garrett in three sets. The Voorhees, New Jersey, native took the first set 6-4 and after getting blanked 6-0 in the second set, he displayed great composure by battling back to win the super tiebreaker 10-5.

“That was a great win for Ben,” Shoemaker added. “He fought through some adversity and was able to gut out a tight match. We had some good performances elsewhere too, but we need to get healthy here in the next week or so to get everyone back into their normal spots.”

Leffler and Towne paired up and No. 2 doubles, but fell to Bill DeRocha and Shaun Mills 8-4.

Oberlin returns to action next Saturday when it plays host to Washington and Jefferson at 12:30 p.m.