Saturday, William and Mary welcomed Yale to the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. Despite an all-around strong singles performance by the Tribe (6-3), it was not able to come back from an early deficit against the Bulldogs (5-4), falling 4-2.
Yet again, the Tribe could not secure the doubles point, giving the Bulldogs an early 1-0 lead. The senior duo of Christian Cargill and Alex Miller fell 6-2 at the No. 1 double spot to Yale’s Fedor Andrienko and Stefan Doehler. In a similar pattern, senior Lars de Boer and junior Tristan Bautil fell to Bulldogs Dylan King and Nathan Brown at the No. 2 spot, also suffering a 6-2 defeat. The freshmen pair of Louis Newman and Finbar Talcott were victorious at the No. 3 spot, defeating Dennis Wang and Andrew Heller 6-2.
“They’re strong. They outplayed us in doubles all the way around: energy, intensity and made more balls.”
“Obviously a tough battle, we knew it was gonna be coming in,” head coach Jeff Kader said. “They’re strong. They outplayed us in doubles all the way around: energy, intensity and made more balls. Trying to come back from that is obviously gonna be tough.”
Singles play commenced and the College suffered early losses. Freshman Sebastian Quiros fell 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 5 spot to Andrienko. At the No. 2 spot, Cargill fell 7-5, 6-3 to Yale’s Dylan King. At this point, the Bulldogs were up 3-0.
The Tribe started to come back with victories at the No. 4 and No. 1 spots. Talcott was the first to go into a three-set matchup against Doehler. Talcott dominated the first set 6-0 before dropping the second set 6-3. In a charged third set, Talcott managed a 6-4 victory, securing his win at the No. 4 spot. Miller added to the College’s comeback with an intense 6-3, 7-6 victory at the No. 1 spot against Yale’s Andrew Heller. Miller’s success at the top spot put the Tribe back in the running, only trailing the Bulldogs 3-2.
“Obviously very encouraging with how [the freshmen] are doing and more importantly just kinda how they’re competing every single day,” Kader said. “Been very happy with that and they’re helping to push everyone on the team.”
Freshman Michael Chen battled Yale’s Alan Sou in three long and close sets at the No. 6 spot. After winning the first set 6-3, Chen dropped the second set 6-4, sending the match into a third set. In one of the closest matches of the day, Chen dropped the final set 7-6 (7-5). Sou’s win solidified Yale’s victory 4-2, with Newman’s match at the No. 3 spot going unfinished in a third set tiebreaker.
The Tribe will next host Liberty at home on March 3 at 3 p.m. at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center as it looks to improve its record at home.