OLEAN, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's tennis team fell to in-state foe St. Bonaventure by a match score of 7-0. The non-conference loss came at the hand of the Division I Bonnies at the St. Bonaventure Fitness Center. Daemen moves to 1-7 on the season while the Atlantic-10 member Bonnies move to 6-8 this season.
The host Bonnies took a 1-0 lead winning all three doubles match. In a new scoring format for NCAA Division II matches this season, the outcome of doubles matches will award a single point to the team winning at least two of the three matchups, as opposed to awarding points for each individual doubles victory.
Daemen's top doubles team with Fabian Wilde (Crimmitschau, Germany) and Jose Williamson III (Minneapolis, Minn.) suffered a tight 7-6 loss to junior Lukas Linden Malmberg and senior Indra Patwardhan. The second, Ricardo Ruiz Martinez (Valencia, Spain) and David Gonzalez (Pereira, Columbia) and third, Justin Milner (Ithaca, N.Y.) and James Schaab-Rozbicki (Amherst, N.Y.), seeded doubles teams for the Wildcats both fell 6-1 giving the Bonnies the first point of the day.
Three of the singles matches went to three sets while the other three were decided in straight sets. The top three seeded Wildcats all took the Bonnies to three sets. Ruiz Martinez fell in the first set 7-6 and followed the second set with a 6-4 win. Then, Ruiz Martinez fell 10-6 to finish the match up. Wilde and Gonzalez both went to three sets as well ultimately falling in the final set. This gave the Bonnies its 4 points, ultimately clinching the match.
"Our top three in singles played really competitive matches, and I feel like they are starting to compete much better," said head coach Kerry McDermott.
Williamson at the fourth seed fell 6-3 and 6-1. Miller fell 6-1 and 6-2 followed by Schaad-Rozbicki falling 6-1 and 6-2 as well. This gave the Bonnies the final three points for a final match score of 7-0.
"St. Bonaventure is a well-coached Division I team, and we will use this match as good experience for the rest of the season."
The Wildcats will travel to Southern California for two matches on Saturday, March 16 to play Concordia University and Azusa Pacific University.
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