Men's Tennis

Against Allegheny (Pa.); Play at ITA This Weekend

BEREA, OHIO -- The Baldwin Wallace University men's tennis team won its fall season-opening match when it defeated nonleague foe Allegheny (Pa.) College, 4-3, at the "Pop" Collins Courts yesterday (Saturday, September 25) in Berea. The Yellow Jackets end their brief fall season this coming weekend (Oct. 1-3) when they travel to Springfield, Ohio and Wittenberg University to compete at the annual ITA (Intercoillegiate Tennis Association/ Rolex) Championships.

In beating Allegheny, BW won three of six singles and two of three doubles matches as it improved to 1-0 overall. Allegheny, with its loss, is 2-3 overall.

In singles play, the top three players all won. Senior number one player Mike Wagner (Avon Lake), the 2004 Ohio Athletic Conference "Player of the Year", won in straight sets against Seth Wilmore, 6-0 and 6-1. Freshman James Daly (Akron/ Firestone), an Ohio High School Athletic Association state qualifier last year, won at second singles in three sets. He won the first set in a tie-breaker, lost the second set and then cruised to victory with a 6-1 decision in the final set. Three-time All-OAC player Ward Crane (Hudson/ Western Reserve Academy) then won at third singles in straight 6-1 sets.

In doubles play, the number one duo of Wagner and Crane won, 8-3. The number two tandem of Daly and fourth singles player and senior Adam Slabodnick (Ashland/ Senior) won, 8-5.

In addition, with his win, BW veteran Head Coach Brian Rector improved his career record to 244-57 overall. Rector, a 1989 BW graduate and a former Academic All-American player for the Yellow Jackets, is BW's winningest-ever men's tennis coach.

BW is coming off a 2004 spring season when it won the OAC regular season and OAC Tournament titles and had a perfect 22-0 overall record.

FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact the BW Sports Information Office by telephone at (440) 826-2327, by FAX at (440) 826-2329 or e-mail SID Kevin Ruple at kruple@bw.edu.