Dawgs Defeat Alabama At ITA Kick-Off Weekend

Friday, January 27

Athens, GA

6:00 AM

University of Washington

Alabama

January 27, 2017 | Men's Tennis

ATHENS, Ga. – In the opening round of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend the Washington men's tennis team defeated Alabama 4-2 to advance to Sunday's championships match at the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Courts.

In doubles, the Tide jumped on Washington early, picking up a 6-2 win on court one as No. 32 Mazen Osama and Spencer Richey defeated Piers Foley and Wendell Watanabe. While the Huskies were able to battle back, sitting at 6-6 in both remaining matches, Alabama clinched the doubles point with a 7-4 win in the tie-breaker on court two by Ritchie Kruunenberg and Alexey Nesterov.

"I'm a little frustrated that we weren't able to do better in doubles and come away with the doubles point," said head coach Matt Anger. "I felt like we had opportunities but weren't able to take advantage of them at the second and third doubles. Ultimately though, Alabama deserved that doubles point."

In singles Washington wasted no time taking back the lead, with two huge wins on courts one and two. Enzo Sommer was the first to defeat his opponent, picking up his first ranked win of the season over No. 78 Thibault Cancel 6-4, 6-3. Court number one featured a great matchup of No. 60 Mitch Stewart versus the 63rd ranked Osama. Winning the first set 6-3, Stewart came out on top of a close second set 7-6, after sweeping the tie-breaker 7-0.

Due to the size of the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Courts, only four singles matches were able to be played at once, delaying the start of Amit Batta and Foley's matches until Sommer and Stewart had finished theirs.

"We came back pretty strong in singles," sand Anger. "They have only four courts here so you play one through four, and both schools split each first set, but we came on really well in those second sets."

Gal Hakak gave the Dawgs a 3-1 lead in the match on court three, mounting a great comeback against Richey. Dropping the first set 6-2, the Husky senior claimed the second set 6-0 before winning the tie-breaker in the third set 7-0. In a tight match on court four, Jake Douglas fell just short to Nesterov by a final score of 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) to bring the match score to 3-2 Washington.

Just as he did last season against No. 8 USC, Piers Foley clinched the victory for the Huskies, defeating Langford Hills on court six 6-2, 6-4 to send Washington to Sunday's final. Amit Batta's match on court five went unfinished.

"We really came through strong in the end and got the momentum in our favor," said Anger. "Piers Foley was able to finish for us so it was a great day for him."

The Huskies will face the winner of this afternoon's match between No. 5 Georgia and Purdue on Sunday at 10 a.m. PT, for the chance to advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships next month.

RESULTS

Washington – 4

Alabama – 2

Doubles

1 – No. 32 Osama/Richey (Ala) def. Foley/Watanabe (UW) 6-2

2 – Kruunenberg/Nesterov (Ala) def. Lam/Sommer (UW) 7-6 (7-4)

3 – Batta/Douglas (UW) vs. Cancel/Ortiz (Ala) 6-6 (6-6) (DNF)

Order of finish: 1, 2

Singles

1 – No. 60 Mitch Stewart def. No. 63 Mazen Osama (Ala) 6-3, 7-6 (7-0)

2 – Enzo Sommer (UW) def. No. 78 Thibault Cancel (Ala) 6-4, 6-3

3 – Gal Hakak (UW) def. Spencer Richey (Ala) 2-6, 6-0, 7-6 (7-0)