Doubles Play Leads Bears Past No. 19 Northwest Missouri State, 5-4

BOX SCORE

St. Louis, Mo., March 11, 2011 – The Washington University in St. Louis men's tennis team picked up a hard-fought 5-4 victory over NCAA Division II No. 19 ranked Northwest Missouri State University on Friday afternoon at the Tao Tennis Center in St. Louis, Mo.

With the match tied at 4-4, sophomore Bryan Haywood clinched the victory for the Bears with a 6-3, 6-7 (7-3), 7-5 victory over Giovani Aurchio at No. 6 singles.

The Bears jumped ahead 2-1 after doubles play. Seniors Isaac Stein and Max Woods picked up an 8-1 convincing at No. 1 doubles, followed by an 8-6 win by junior Cameron Chiang and sophomore Kareem Farah at No 2.

Washington U. dropped the top two singles matches, but the Bears picked up a win at No. 3 singles (6-1, 2-6, 6-4) by sophomore Adam Putterman. The Bears split the next two singles matches, as sophomore Gary Parizher dropped a tough three-set match at No. 4 (3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4) and Farah won at No. 5, 6-2, 6-2.

“It was a good hard-fought victory in doubles to gain the 2-1 margin,” said 10th-year head coach Roger Follmer. “Then just a lot of tough matches and no real easy points. We pulled out some big wins at No. 5 and 6 singles. We had to rely on our doubles play and depth to pull off matches like this down the stretch.”

Washington University (5-2) hosts NAIA No. 9 Graceland University on Saturday, March 12, at Noon.

Bear Notebook: Washington U. is 4-2 against teams ranked in the top-25 this season … The win for Follmer was the 160th of his career … The Bears are 83-7 (.922) at home under Follmer.