Tigers Fall To Ohio Northern By Narrow Margin
Trio of three-setters go to Polar Bears to pull out 5-4 decision over Wittenberg.
DAYTON, Ohio - Three three-set matches went against the Wittenberg Tigers as they dropped a hard-fought 5-4 decision to visiting Ohio Northern in a match played at Dayton Center Courts due to low temperatures.
The loss dropped Wittenberg, ranked 20th in the Central Region, to 8-3 on the 2013-14 season. Ohio Northern, ranked 18th in the region, improved to 6-2.
The Tigers started the match by getting the upper hand in two of the three doubles matches. Both of Wittenberg's wins came by narrow 9-7 margins as freshman Juan Mena (Quito, Ecuador/Colego Americano-Quito) teamed with senior Tyler Strong (Louisville, Ky./DuPont Manual) for a victory at No. 2 and sophomore Stas Pakhomov (Richmond, British Columbia/Sir Winston Churchill) paired with freshman Akbar Tiwana (Lahore, Pakistan/Aitchison) for the win at No. 3.
The tide turned in the singles competition. Junior Alexey Topolyanskiy (Moscow, Russia/School 712) was a straight sets victor at No. 1 and sophomore Mitchell Patterson (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller) won at No. 6 without dropping a set. But in between, the Polar Bears rallied for four victories, including three in three-set fashion.