Men’s Tennis: Freshmen lead Tribe to Sunday sweep

William and Mary swept its double-header against UM-Baltimore County and Morgan State Sunday, continuing a dominant stretch of recent play. Against UM-BC, the Tribe won 4-3. Later that day, Morgan State left scoreless, with the College winning 7-0.

“Our doubles carried us again. I feel really good about getting the doubles point. Obviously in a 4-3 match we may have lost the whole match,” head coach Peter Daub said. “In doubles we’ve been aggressive and we came out that way today even though we didn’t have [senior Ben] Guthrie. Our singles — we had good performances pretty much up and down the line. It was good to see [senior Ben] Hoogland even though he went down at the tiebreaker. He played well. I feel good about the match and we haven’t really had a lot of outdoor matches so it’s a good thing we’re out here.”

In the doubles competition, juniors Aaron Chaffee and Will Juggins won their sets in the top spot. Freshman Addison Appleby won his singles match in the third spot alongside fifth and sixth spot wins from freshman Damon Niquet and senior John Banks, respectively. Against UM-BC’s Justin Carter, Hoogland entered into a tiebreaker set in the No. 1 spot, where he fell short by a few points.

“We took the doubles play which was big for us. It was pretty close; I thought we played very well,” Hoogland said. “We got the job done pretty quickly and both players were very good. Singles …  I thought we played very well. The positions where we were better we really took advantage of.”

While Carter had a powerful serve, Hoogland was accurate and had more control. Carter won his first set, but Hoogland managed to win the second. In the tiebreaker, Carter came back and ended up winning 10-3.

“He [was] very quick on the court,” Hoogland said of Carter. “He had a great backhand, which is pretty unusual. Usually people are better with the forehand. He was very aggressive. Second set — I was able to take a little bit more time away from him and make him miss a little bit, but …  he could hit the ball.”

Against Morgan State in the doubles competition, every Tribe position won their respective sets. In the No. 1 spot, Chaffee and Juggins won 8-5. At No. 3, junior Zach Braig and redshirt freshman Austin Davidow finished their set without any points scored on them, winning 8-0.    In singles, the Tribe continued where doubles left off: every athlete of the Tribe won their sets. Sophomore Scott Huang also enjoyed no points scored against him, and won both his sets 6-0. Braig followed closely, winning both his sets 6-1.

The College plays Old Dominion Saturday, April 12 to finish the regular season in Norfolk, Va.

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