Feb. 9, 2003
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - After losing the doubles point against Western Michigan on Sunday, the Purdue men's tennis team stacked on four consecutive wins in singles to clinch a 4-3 victory over the Broncos at the Lafayette Sports Center. The win gave the Boilermakers, ranked 46th in the latest ITA poll, their second victory in its three-day homestand, and improved their season record to 3-1.
The Broncos took two of the three doubles matches to earn the point. Western Michigan's Ravi Pathanjali and Jose Orozco took the No. 2 match, defeating freshman Paul Rose and senior Andrew Wakefield 8-5. The Broncos' No. 3 team took the other match, as Tom Dennis and Mike Findling defeated freshman Colin Foster and junior Seth McKinley 8-6.
The only doubles victory for the Boilermakers came from the No. 1 spot, with senior Scott Mayer and junior Troy Havens teamiung up for an 8-5 victory over Western Michigan's Ryan Maarschalk and Dan Grupp.
Mayer, who underwent elbow surgery last November, rebounded from an exhausting match against Notre Dame the day before.
"After yesterday's match, my elbow was shot," Mayer said. "Coming in today, I warmed up for five or 10 minutes to get ready for doubles."
Mayer also came through in singles, delivering a 7-6, 6-3 win over Pathanjali at No. 1. At No. 2, Wakefield defeated Western Michigan's Dennis 6-3, 6-3, while Rose downed Lindros 6-3, 6-3 at No. 4.
With Purdue up 3-1 and three matches remaining, it was up to Havens at No. 3, sophomore David Robinson at No. 5, or Foster at No. 6 to clinch a victory for the Boilermakers.
All three matches went to a third-set tiebreaker. Havens provided the heroics with a 7-6, 4-6, 6-1 over Maarschalk, putting the Boilermakers up 4-1 for a guaranteed team victory.
"It was important for me to win the match," Havens said. "We were all in tight matches, so anytime that something good happened, I had to be sure to let everybody know."
Purdue coach Tim Madden was enthused by the play of Havens.
"Troy Havens clearly was a man on a mission today," Madden said. "He just refused to go away."
Havens lifted Purdue to the win, which came on the heels of a 4-3 loss to the Irish on Saturday. Madden noted the similarities between the last two opponents.
"I think this team is as good or better than Notre Dame," Madden said of Western Michigan. "We didn't control our destiny yesterday. I think some guys did some soul searching last night and decided that the outcome was going to be on our terms today."
After Havens' match-deciding victory, both Robinson and Foster dropped their matches. Justin Kates defeated Robinson 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, while Jose Orozco defeated Foster 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
The Boilermakers will continue action when they travel to Muncie, Ind., on Feb. 22, to take on Ball State.
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