Men's tennis rallies to take down Old Dominion
By Jared Klose
Senior Reporter

> February 16, 2001

A strong showing in singles play helped the Demon Deacons come from behind to claim a 4-3 victory over Old Dominion University and remain undefeated at the Wake Forest Indoor Tennis Center in their match Feb. 10.

The Monarchs (5-3) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after taking two out of three doubles matches, but the Deacons didn’t panic and rallied to win four out of six singles matches.

Without the services of doubles specialist and top seeded singles player senior Raul Munoz for the second consecutive week, the Deacons again demonstrated that they are not a one-man-deep team.

The doubles pairing of junior Justin Kaufmann and sophomore Mike Murray was thwarted at the No. 1 position by a score of 8-3, but the No. 2 pair for the Deacons, sophomores David Bere and Trent Brendon, managed to offset the result with an 8-3 victory of their own. The Monarchs’ third doubles team closed the door on the Deacs’ hopes of capturing the doubles point, however, capturing an 8-6 win over freshmen David Loewenthal and Andrew Simpson.

“Without Raul in doubles, and he is one of the best doubles players in the country, we knew we’d be a little bit behind the eight-ball to start out,”Head Coach Jeff Zinn said. “But it’s going to happen a lot this year that we don’t win the doubles point and that we’re gonna have to win the singles. It’s good for the guys to get that in their heads now that we can do that."

The Demon Deacons quickly rebounded in singles play to erase the early deficit, as three Deacons posted straight set wins. Bere recorded a 6-3, 6-2 victory at the top spot and Murray breezed for the second week in a row with his 6-1, 6-1 win in third position. Loewenthal followed at fourth with a decisive 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-2 win that sealed the fate of the Monarchs and moved the Deacons’ record to 3-0. Brendon, the No. 5 seed, was the other Deacon winner on the day in his 6-4, 6-3 match.

Kaufmann, who played No. 2, and junior Rick Phillipp, who filled the sixth position, were the only Deacs to fall in singles play with their respective scores of 3-6, 7-6 (3) and 4-6, 6-3.

“In singles play we played well,”Zinn said. “Everybody came out strong and played well, including Justin and Rick, even though they lost, and we needed that because ODU was a good team.”

As displayed last week, the depth of the Deacon line-up is formidable even without their standout player Munoz.

“It was the strength of the line-up top to bottom that won it,” Zinn said. “We have very good singles players and that’s evident and I never felt really nervous during that match that we were in jeopardy of losing.”

Still, the Deacons will be happy to welcome back the Mexico City native for a trying road trip that will pit them against Florida Atlantic and Miami this weekend in a swing through the Sunshine State.

“Both teams are nationally ranked, Miami is in the top 20 and they’re solid and it’s a good test for us outside and it’s a good indicator of where we are and how hard we’re gonna have to work.”

The Deacs will clash with Florida Atlantic Feb. 17 in Tampa, Fl and face off with Miami the following day on their home courts.