Men's Tennis Falls to Winthrop 5-2

Tuesday, March 6

Rock Hill, S.C.

TBA

James Madison University

Winthrop

3/7/2012 1:09:00 AM | Men's Tennis

ROCK HILL, S.C., March 6, 2012 - The James Madison men's tennis team began its tour of South Carolina with a trip to Rock Hill and a match against Winthrop Tuesday afternoon. The Eagles overpowered the Dukes for a 5-2 victory, dropping JMU to 3-4 overall while Winthrop improved to 6-6.

After dropping the doubles point, the Dukes responded in No.1 and No.2 singles, winning a pair of three-set matches. However, Winthrop rebounded, taking the final four singles matches to grab the win.

Doubles play started with a tightly-played match in the No. 1 position. Junior Greg Vladimirsky (Coral Springs, Fla./Broward Virtual) and senior Bertrand Moulin (Lyon, France/Aux Lazaristes Minimes/Wayne State) gave the Eagles' Guy Kubi and Nadav Ruppin all they could handle but the Winthrop pair found a way to overcome, topping the Dukes' pair 8-6.

Juniors Ryan Pool (Melbourne, Australia/Braemar/Chattanooga) and Florent Sentenac (Borderes, France/Lycee Theophile Gautier/Auburn Montgomery) put JMU back in contention for the doubles point, improving their doubles record to 5-2 and beating Winthrop's Dylan Comerford and Rich Meade 8-3 in the No. 2 spot. The Dukes were not able to sustain the momentum, dropping the doubles point when Yuta Hirokawa and Luka Stanic took down the junior pairing of Bastien Russo (Lyon, France/Notre Dame des Minimes/Shorter) and Hugo Ramadier (Rome, Italy/Lycee Francais Chateabriand/ Northern Arizona) in No. 3 doubles, 8-2.

Vladimirsky rebounded from his earlier doubles loss, topping Ruppin in a tight three-set match in the top singles spot. Vladimirsky topped Ruppin 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 and swung the momentum back in the Dukes' favor.

Pool kept the ball rolling in No. 2 singles, overcoming Kubi in three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to give the Dukes the slight 2-1 advantage in the match.

Comerford came back in No. 3 singles, stealing the Dukes' momentum in another pivotal three-set match. After dropping set one, Comerford stormed back, taking the next two sets and beating Moulin 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 to knot the match at two apiece.

Hirokawa put the Eagles ahead again, this time to stay, in the No. 4 singles match. He handed Sentenac his second straight singles loss, this time in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, giving the Eagles the 3-2 advantage.

Stanic gave Winthrop the win in the decisive No. 5 singles spot. Senior Tommi Nissinen (Oulu, Finland/Kastellin Lukio) battled for the Dukes, taking set one 6-4 but fell in sets two and three, 7-5 and 1-0, respectively. With the match in the Eagles' hands, Meade dropped Dukes' senior Jovan Milic (Belgrade, Serbia/Belgrade Sports School) in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to close out the match.

The Dukes continue their trek through South Carolina on Wednesday, March 7 with a stop in Charleston to take on The Citadel at 1 p.m. The Bulldogs are 4-4 after falling to East Carolina 5-2 on Tuesday.

March 6, 2012 at Rock Hill, SC

Winthrop 5, James Madison 2

Doubles competition:
1. KUBI, Guy/RUPPIN, Nadav (WUM) def.