KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Calvin University men's tennis team came back from a 4-1 deficit to defeat Kalamazoo College 5-4 to secure the program's first ever road win at Kalamazoo on Wednesday.
The match was tight from the start, as Kalamazoo (1-8, 0-1 MIAA) won 8-3 in number-one doubles, but the Calvin (10-2, 2-0 MIAA) number-three doubles team of
Emmanuel Henao (Medellin, Columbia/Escuela Normal Superior "La Merced") and
Ryan Broek (Hudsonville, Mich./Unity Christian) won 8-6 to even the score.
The number-two doubles match went to a tiebreaker, with the Hornets topping the Knights' team of
Harrison Sindelar (Westfield, Ind./Westfield) and
Felipe Sartori (Cotia, Brazil/Colegio Giusto Zonzini) 8-7 (9-7) in a close tiebreaker to take a 2-1 overall lead.
Kalamazoo continued that momentum into singles, where it won the numbers-one and three matches in straight sets to take a commanding 4-1 lead.
Needing to win the final four singles contests, the Calvin comeback started with
Maurquis Willingham (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central) winning 3-6, 6-4 and 6-4 in two-singles, and Sindelar (6-2, 6-3) and Henao (6-1, 6-2) followed with straight set wins in the five and six-singles matches to even the score at 4-4.
In four-singles, Broek dropped the first set, but won a second-set tiebreaker 7-2 to push the match to a deciding third set. In the final set, Broek opened with a 4-1 lead, but held off a furious charge from the Hornets' Julian Bilbao to force another tiebreaker.
In that final tiebreaker, Broek took an early 5-2 lead and then served the final two points to finish off the three-set win 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), and 7-6 (7-4).
COACH'S COMMENT: "Really solid win for our program," Calvin head tennis coach
John Ross said. "Fighting back after being down 1-4 showed a lot of character from our team. Ryan showed a ton of guts to win his third-set tiebreaker. We have suffered through generations of tough losses at Kalamazoo and it's to finally get a win there."
NEXT UP: Calvin men's tennis returns to action on Wednesday, April 10, when it plays at The University of Olivet in a match scheduled to start at 4:00 PM.
