BOX SCORE

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's tennis team suffered an 8-1 loss to Niagara University here today in a non-conference dual-match held at the Miller Tennis Center. It marked the spring season home opener for the Wildcats.

Daemen dropped to 4-4 on the year, while the Purple Eagles posted their first win of the year and improved to 1-7. It marked the third-straight year the Wildcats have faced Division 1 Niagara. The Purple Eagles have now prevailed in all three meetings.

Niagara opened the match by taking two of the three doubles matches. Freshman Finnbar Adams (Shropshire, England) and sophomore Taylan Ozdemir (Swindon, England) teamed up for an 8-2 win over freshman Jose Williamson III (Minneapolis, Minn.) and sophomore Fabian Wilde (Crimmitschau, Germany) at No. 1 doubles. Daemen evened the match at 1-1 after freshmen Tim Georg (Aschaffenburg, Germany) and Pablo Martinez Hernandez (Huatulco, Mexico) outlasted fellow rookies Pere Padro Parra (Barcelona, Spain) and Shyam Srinivasan (Chennai, India) at No. 3 doubles by a score of 8-5. Niagara took the lead for good after sophomore Josh Wilson (Cambridge, England) and junior Brent Boleslav (Syracuse, N.Y.) downed juniors David Gonzalez Villegas (Pereira, Colombia) and Ricardo Ruiz Martinez (Valencia, Spain) 8-4 at No. 2 doubles.

Three of the six singles matches took three sets to decide. Gonzalez, Wilde and Martinez all forced three sets in singles play for Daemen. Gonzalez took the first set (6-1) at No. 2 singles, but Wilson took the next two 6-3, 6-4 to take the match. Wilde and Martinez also won their first set, only to have Niagara rally for the win. Boleslav defeated Wilde at No. 4 singles 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Padro Parra defeated Martinez 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 at No. 5. Ozdemir, Adams and Srinivasan all posted straight-set wins in singles play for the Purple Eagles. Ozdemir defeated Georg 6-1, 6-3 at No. 1, Adams downed Ruiz 6-4, 6-4 at No. 3 and Srinivasan defeated Williamson 7-6, 6-0 at No. 6.

Daemen returns to Division II play Saturday (Feb. 24) when it hosts Le Moyne College in a non-league match.

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