Men's Tennis Beats Wisconsin-Whitewater 5-1 to Capture Fifth-Straight Regional Title

RESULTS

Creve Coeur, Mo., May 15, 2011 – The No. 5 Washington University in St. Louis men’s tennis team beat the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 5-1 to capture its fifth-straight NCAA Division III regional championship on Sunday afternoon at the Creve Coeur Racquet Club in Creve Coeur, Mo.

The Bears advance to the NCAA Division III quarterfinals, to be held Tuesday-Thursday, May 24-26, in Claremont, Calif. Up next for Washington University will be No. 6 Kenyon College, who won their regional with a 5-2 victory over the University of Mary Washington earlier on Sunday.

Washington University has faced Kenyon just once in postseason play, picking up a 5-0 win in the regional final in 2003.

The Bears took a crucial 2-1 lead through doubles against Wisconsin-Whitewater on Sunday thanks to a big comeback by sophomores Gary Parizher and Adam Putterman in the No. 3 match.

The No. 1 doubles tandem of seniors Isaac Stein and Max Woods gave Washington University an early 1-0 lead with an 8-5 win over Byron Balkin and Mitch Osborne, but the Bears were trailing at both second and third doubles, before Parizher and Putterman erased a 5-2 deficit to deliver an 8-6 win over Erik Scanlan and Charlie Miller.

The second doubles match went down to a tiebreaker with Andy McGlashen and Andrew Bayliss edging junior Cameron Chiang and sophomore Kareem Farah 9-8 (8-6) to make the score 2-1 heading to singles.

Stein pushed the Washington University advantage to 3-1 thanks to a straight-set 6-0, 6-1, win over Bayliss at No. 1 singles. Bryan Haywood beat Scanlan 6-1, 6-2, in the No. 6 match and just moments later Farah finished off Ethan Niquet 6-3, 6-0, to clinch the 5-1 victory.

In the three unfinished singles matches, Woods snuck by McGlashen 7-6 (7-3) in the opening set at No. 2 singles, and the second set was tied 1-1 when play was suspended. At No. 3 singles Putterman won his first set against Osborne 6-3, but trailed 2-5 in the second and Balkin led Parizher 7-5 with one set completed.