BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Moravian College continues its look back at its 2014-15 athletic campaign with the No. 9 highlight in the Top 10 Exciting Games – the men's tennis team earning a 6-3 win over rival Muhlenberg College.
The Greyhounds, who finished the year with a 13-7 overall record, capped the regular season on Friday, April 24 with a victory over the Mules at Hoffman Courts, Moravian's first win over its rival since the 2010-11 season.
For Head Coach Art Smith '68, it was his first victory against Muhlenberg since being a player and his first coaching the Hounds.
"Muhlenberg was an extremely exciting win for our team, since we had lost to them the last three years," commented Smith. "Personally, this was probably the most satisfying victory I have had thus far as tennis coach at Moravian College."
The Blue & Grey would sweep the doubles matches to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Sophomore Dan Schmucker and freshman David Wilson were the first off the courts with an 8-2 win at third doubles. Juniors Matt Tuorto and John Wylie posted a 9-7 triumph at first doubles while senior Lewis Cooper and sophomore Giovanni Lombardi finished off the sweep by the same 9-7 score at second doubles.
"By winning all three doubles this gave our players a real boost in confidence going into the singles play," stated Smith. "All of our singles players competed extremely hard."
Schmucker was done first in singles action, earning a point when his opponent had to retire from an injury in the opening set at fourth singles as Moravian pushed the lead to 4-0, just one point shy of the total needed to win the match. The Mules would pick up victories at third and fifth singles to cut the Hounds lead to 4-2.
Junior C.J. Widdifield was the next player to finish, and when he won his sixth singles match, 6-1, 7-5, the Greyhounds had the victory in hand.
"C.J. was the winning point at number six singles. He won the first set fairly easy but his opponent lifted his game and played very tough in the second set," explained Smith. "C.J. clinched the match by being very steady and picking the right times to attack. It was an satisfying win for our junior number six man."
Moravian would get one more point as Tuorto won a three-set match at first singles. After falling in a tiebreaker in the first set, 7-6 (8-6), Tuorto won the second set, 7-5, and then took the 10-point tiebreaker in the third set, 10-7, with the match already in hand.
"Matt played outstanding in singles against a player who had beat him last year," Smith said.
"It was a great team win and the first win over Muhlenberg in awhile," commented Tuorto, one of the Hounds' team captains along with Cooper. "It was very important to have all three doubles points to carry over into singles. I finally beat the number one player after losing to him the first two times I played him. I was proud of how hard everyone worked and stuck together to get the win. It was a great team accomplishment to beat Muhlenberg and we couldn't have done it without our coaches."
Wylie looked to give the Blue & Grey one more point after he won the second set at second doubles to even his contest at a set apiece; however, we ended up falling in three sets.
TV-2 Sports covered the match and you can watch a highlight package at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYfG_DyPHVQ#t=17.
After the win, the Hounds would go on to compete in the Landmark Conference Semifinals and then the ECAC Division III Outdoor Championship as the squad earned the program's first-ever postseason title by capturing the ECAC crown.
You can check out the original game day story at http://moraviansports.com/sports/mten/2014-15/releases/20150424ryprma.
Number eight on our Top 10 Exciting Games will be announced on Friday, July 3.
