LYNCHBURG, Va.- The Randolph men's tennis team hosted Guilford in its first home match of the spring on Saturday afternoon. The match came down to the wire as the WildCats defeated the Quakers 4-3.
The victory was of great significance for Randolph as it is its first ever win in program history over Guilford in the 17th match between the two schools.
The WildCats found themselves behind 1-0 after doubles play. The second doubles pair of Vincenzo Marchese and Andreas Mulner (Brasnov Romania) was able to defeat the duo of Henry Austin and Emmanuel Oye 7-5.
Mulner went on to defeat Brandon Hermes 6-0, 7-6 at second singles. Marchese needed three sets in his match against Austin but was able to come out on top 2-6, 7-6, 7-5. Lukas Rathgeb (Koln, Germany Apostelgymnasium) won 6-1, 7-6 against Evan Won at fifth singles. The match came down to Jason Duval (Kingston, Jamaica) and Oye at sixth singles. Oye won the first set 6-2 while Duval claimed the second set 6-2. Duval was able to win the third set 6-3 to clinch the match for the 'Cats.
"This was one of the craziest matches I've seen in 10 years of doing this," said head coach Sam Martinez afterwards. "For our guys to be down 3-1, especially Vincenzo down 6-2, 5-2 and to dig deep and come back speaks to the heart our team has. It's our first win over them and it just had to be done the hard way. Coming back to win four of the six singles after losing the doubles is the type of resiliency needed to compete in this really difficult conference. So prod of the guys especially for Jason to clinch the match for us."
Randolph is home again tomorrow when it hosts Washington College. The match will begin at 12:00 p.m.
