SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Lake Superior State University men’s tennis program (0-1) narrowly fell to the Tiffin Dragons (1-0) by a final score of 4-3 on Thursday.
The Dragons claimed the early 1-0 advantage after sweeping doubles play despite a hard-fought match at the No. 3 doubles position by Lezan Koyuncu (Cologne, Germany) and newcomer Lluc Limongi Ollers (Mallorca, Spain) that resulted in a narrow defeat by a score of 7-6 after an 8-6 tiebreaker.
Limongi would then continue his impressive debut with a 6-4, 6-3 victory at the No. 2 singles position over the No. 8 ranked player in the Midwest Region, and the Lakers were able to take the lead overall in the match after Maxence Hamon (Montreal, Quebec) earned a win in the No. 3 singles match by a score of 6-1, 6-2.
The Dragons tied up the overall match score at 2-2 after claiming the No. 4 singles match by defeating Jordi Fraile Raton (Sant Cugat del Valles, Spain), but senior Aaron Osmond (Cheltenham, U.K.) made a statement in a big way at the top singles spot. Osmond opened his match against the No. 6 ranked player in NCAA Division II, Tiffin’s Ruben Fonga, by taking the first set 6-3. Fonga was able to bounce back to take the second set 7-5, but Osmond kept fighting and after trailing 5-4 in the third set, he dug deep and rattled off three-straight games to win the set 7-5 and upset one of the top players at the Division II level.
However, the Dragons were able to get a win at No. 6 singles by a score of 6-1, 6-2, and despite an impressive effort from Xavier Vicent Navarro (Cocentaina, Spain) that went down to the wire and required two sets to be decided by tiebreakers, Tiffin would ultimately take the match by a score of 6-7(1), 6-3, 7-6(5), securing the overall team victory by a score of 4-3.
The Lakers return to action on Friday, Feb. 11 when they travel to take on the Northwood Timberwolves.
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