Men's Tennis Falls at Niagara 4-3
NIAGARA FALLS, NY – The Merrimack men's tennis team dropped a 4-3 decision at Niagara Sunday. The Warriors sink to 3-1 on the year with the loss.
The Purple Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the match with two victories in doubles action. Merrimack's third doubles pair of Petar Golijanin (Novi Sad, Serbia) and Chris Toegeemann (Narragansett, RI) earned an 8-6 win. Sean Pahler (Rumson, NJ) and Max Eppley (Malaga, Spain) suffered a narrow 8-6 loss at the No. 2 spot.
The Warriors brought the match score to 3-3 with the decisive point still available. Niagara picked up the fourth point to claim the match.
Chris Barnhart (Longmeadow, MA) rebounded from losing the first set 6-3 to capture the second 7-5. Barnhart triumphed 10-3 in the third-set tiebreaker.
Eppley also sprung back from dropping the first set 6-2 as he prevailed in the second 7-4 in a tiebreaker to send the match to a third set with a 7-6 result. In the third set super-tiebreaker, Eppley rattled off a 10-3 victory to record Merrimack's second point.
Toegemann tied the match at 3-3 with a win at the No. 6 singles slot. Toegemann picked up a 6-3, 6-1 victory to improve to 5-0 in singles matches this fall.
"We did a great job of fighting back in each match and the overall score," said head coach Sean Tully. "All weekend we played well and it was good to have our full lineup back in action."
The Warriors will take on their second Northeast-10 Conference opponent this fall October 14 as they travel to face Franklin Pierce.
