William and Mary (5-1, 1-0 CAA) hit the road for its first away match of the season and beat Yale (2-4) in a resounding 6-1 victory Friday, Feb. 21, in New Haven, Conn. The Tribe won a close doubles point after a tiebreaker and then put on a dominant singles performance against the Bulldogs, claiming five of six singles matches, four of them in straight sets.
Critical to beating its Ivy League foe, the Tribe opened by claiming the doubles point, its sixth straight of the season. Now 15-2 in dual-match doubles action, the College saw clutch performances from senior Brenden Volk and freshman George Davis, who pulled off a tiebreaker win. Volk and Davis claimed a narrow victory, 7-6, over Yale’s Michael Sun and Arnav Dhingra at the No. 1 spot to secure the doubles point.
The two-time reigning CAA Doubles Team of the Week, Volk and Davis won their sixth set in a row and clinched a tiebreaker win for the second time this season.
In doubles, the Tribe took an early lead against Yale. Sophomore Daniel Pellerito and junior Finbar Talcott opened with a 6-0 win over Bulldogs Louis Siegler and Robert Shymansky at the No. 3 spot, earning them a 4-0 record in doubles. But Yale pulled even with a narrow win at the No. 2 spot, where sophomore Joseph Brailovsky and junior Chen Ruo fell, 6-4, to Ryan Cheng and Cody Lin. Volk and Davis broke the tie to earn the Tribe its hard-fought doubles point.
Then in singles, the Tribe powered through the Bulldogs to win Friday’s match.
The Tribe won five of its six single matches against Yale, racking up four of the five wins in straight sets.
At the No. 6 spot, Pellerito lost only one game in a rout against Yale’s Daniel Gale. For his team-leading 16th win of the season, Pellerito rolled over Gale to reach a 6-0, 6-1 win, becoming 5-1 in dual-match play.
At No. 1, Brailovsky dropped just two games in a 6-1, 6-1 win over Sun. He rose to 5-1 at the No. 1 spot and 12-6 overall.
After clinching the doubles point together, Davis and Volk individually posted straight-sets wins at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. At the No. 5 spot, Davis overcame Dhingra in a 6-2, 6-2 win, boosting his singles record to 12-8 overall and 5-1 in dual-match play. And at No. 4, Volk outfought Yale’s Ryan Cheng in a 6-4, 6-4 battle. With this win, Volk evened his singles record at 8-8 and rose to 4-1 in dual-match play.
Talcott ended the Tribe’s victory at Yale with a three-set win over Shymansky at the No. 2 spot. In a back-and-forth match, Talcott won the opening set, 6-2, before his Bulldog opponent fought back with a 6-3 win in the second. Talcott then claimed a 10-4 tiebreaker win in the decisive third set, moving to 9-9 overall and 4-2 in dual-match play.
The Tribe will return home to face Elon (2-4) Sunday, March 1, at the Millie West Tennis Facility.