HILTON HEAD, S.C. - The Bridgewater College men's tennis team added two in the win column Thursday with convincing victories over Ohio Wesleyan and Eastern Nazarene. The Eagles stopped Ohio Wesleyan 7-2 and defeated Eastern Nazarene 8-1.
The Eagles grabbed an early lead in the morning match against Ohio Wesleyan by winning two of the three doubles matches.
Bridgewater's Brandon Larsen and Thomas Rishcoff won at No. 2 doubles with an 8-5 victory over Conor Breen and Dane Poppe. At No. 3 doubles, the Eagles duo of Sam Churchill and Kyle Hartfield rolled to an 8-2 win over Austin Okray and John Russell.
Ohio Wesleyan picked up one point in doubles when Richie Karban and Aadil Kohari held off Christian Lynn and Mike Cable 8-4 at the No. 1 flight.
Bridgewater won five of the six singles matches to clinch the team victory.
Larsen took a straight set victory at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-4 over Kohari and Hartfield followed with a 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 2 over Karban. Lynn also won his match at No. 3 in straight sets over Breen 6-4, 6-1.
Rishcoff at No. 4 singles and Cable at No. 6 each won in split sets. Rishcoff won the first set over Russell 6-2 before Russell evened the match by taking the second set 6-1. A tiebreaker was played to determine the winner with Rishcoff winning comfortably, 10-3. Cable rolled to a 6-1 decision in his first set against Poppe before losing a close second set 6-4. Cable outlasted Poppe 13-11 in the tiebreaker.
Ohio Wesleyan took its lone singles point when Churchill retired in the second set of his match against Okray. Churchill won the first set 7-5 and led the second set 1-0 before retiring.
Thursday afternoon, the Eagles got off to a strong start against Eastern Nazarene by sweeping doubles play.
Larsen and Rishcoff turned back Andres Biondi and Sam McKay-Corkum 8-2 at No. 1 doubles while Lynn and Drew Hubble downed Tyler Perron and Nick Thompson 8-4 at No. 2. Hartfield and Aaron Snook completed the sweep with an 8-2 win at No. 3 doubles over Kevin Paterno and Davis Steelman
The Eagles won the first five singles flights to clinch the team victory.
Larsen blanked Biondi 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 while Hartfield won at No. 2 in split sets over McKay-Corkum. Hartfield took the first set 6-1 but lost a tough 7-6 decision in set two. A tiebreaker was played to determine the winner with Hartfield victorious, 10-5.
Lynn defeated Perron 6-4, 6-2 at No. 3 singles and Rishcoff stopped Paterno 6-1, 7-6 at No. 4. Hubble added the Eagles final point with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Steelman at No. 5 singles.
Eastern Nazarene scored its lone singles point at No. 6 where Thompson edged Snook in split sets. Thompson won the first set 6-4, but Snook stormed back to even the match by taking the second set 6-0. Thompson then won the deciding tiebreaker 10-3.
The Eagles will close out play on their spring trip tomorrow morning with an 8 a.m. match against Penn State-Behrend.
