Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Volume 36 Issue 20
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Tennis splits weekend games

By Jeremy Kummer

Staff Writer

Last Thursday, Salisbury University’s men’s tennis team completely dominated Virginia Wesleyan at the SU outdoor tennis courts. The win stretched Salisbury’s win streak to seven in a row. In their past four games, Salisbury has not lost a match, giving them a perfect 36-0 record. Salisbury has shut out five teams and they have yet to get shutout themselves. Winning in such a controlling manner is what gave Salisbury (10-5, 3-1) their number seven ranking in the Atlantic South Region.

"They were just better than Virginia Wesleyan. Throughout the games, Salisbury was never even really threatened," said senior Dan McFarland.

Salisbury went 3-0 in doubles play and had two of those wins in straight sets at 8-0. Singles play was the same old story, as Salisbury won all six of their matches without losing a single game. The singles winners were freshmen Curtis Quandt, Justin Smith and Daniel Barnas, sophomores Giorgio Athans and Matt Copeland and junior Marcus Robinson. After the dominating victory, Salisbury then hosted the University of Mary Washington.

This game was not only important for Capital Athletic Conference standings, but had national ranking implications as well. UMW came into Salisbury as the No. 16 team in the nation and wanted to keep their first place CAC ranking intact. Salisbury needed the win to surpass Mary Washington in the CAC standings and ensure a number one seed in the fast approaching CAC tournament, which begins April 18.

Last year, SU topped Mary Washington in a regular season match-up and they would look to the same on Saturday. Salisbury started off slow and just could not get into a groove. Everything they did against Virginia Wesleyan on Thursday just wasn’t good enough against a much better opponent.

Salisbury lost doubles play 2-1 and singles did not fare much better. Barnas was the only Sea Gull to come away with a singles victory as Salisbury went 1-5 and lost to a final score of 7-2.

"They just looked out of sync as a team," McFarland said. "A couple of breaks here and there and Salisbury could have been able to muster a win."

Salisbury has three more games left — one in the conference — before tournament play and need to rebound quickly in order to get a one or two seed. Johns Hopkins, currently ranked No. 13 in the nation, will be next up for the Sea Gulls as the Blue Jays come to town this Saturday.

Salisbury’s lone conference game remaining will be against at St. Mary’s College on Sunday. SU is only one game out first place in the CAC behind Mary Washington. Salisbury is half-a-game in front of Stevenson for second place and will look to add to that lead over the next three games.

A playoff birth is all but finalized for Salisbury, but two or three more wins on their record would greatly improve their resume.

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