CLAREMONT, Calif. – The 24th ranked Skidmore College men's tennis team fell in a close battle with No. 2 Bowdoin, 6-3 Sunday evening.
Skidmore, ranked 24th in the latest Oracle/ITA polls, drops its first game of the season to fall to 4-1. Bowdoin, the defending Division III national champions, stays undefeated at 2-0.
It was a very competitive match for the Thoroughbreds, with Bowdoin just getting the edge in doubles play to take a 2-1 lead. The team of
Kai Yuen Leung and
John Wynne defeated Bowdoin's Luke Tercek and Grant Urken 8-4 at #1, and the duo of
Lucas Pickering and
Steven Koulouris took Bowdoin's Kyle Wolfe and Jerry Jiang to the wire, but fell 9-7.
In singles play, three out of six matches went the distance as Bowdoin pulled away for the win. Leung (6-0, 6-3 vs. Tercek) and
Travis Leaf (5-7, 6-3, 6-3 vs. Justin Patel) pulled out victories at first and sixth, respectively, while Koulouris (fell 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 vs. Urken) and Pickering (fell 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 vs. Wolfe) went the distance after winning their second sets at second and third singles.
The Thoroughbreds will next play in the Stag-Hen Invitational on Tuesday, first taking on No. 5 Washington University (MO) at 10 a.m. in Claremont, then facing either host No. 6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps or No. 11 Wesleyan at 3 p.m.
Match Results
#2 Bowdoin 6, #24 Skidmore 3
Doubles
Jerry Jiang (BOW-M) def.
John Wynne (SKID) 6-1, 7-6
Travis Leaf (SKID) def. Justin Patel (BOW-M) 5-7, 6-3, 6-3
