Owls shut down Wagner Seahawks, 7-0
WRITTEN BY: JIMMY WILLIAMSON
On Sunday, Temple’s Men’s Tennis team beat the Wagner Seahawks 7-0 to extend their current winning streak to four straight. This is also the Owls’ third straight shutout.
In doubles play, Uladzimir Dorash and Florian Mayer got the ball rolling for the Owls. The freshman duo picked up the victory out of the third flight over Wagner’s Ilya Kneppelhout and Charlton Boyd 6-3. This was the duo’s third straight victory as a doubles team.
Temple’s Hicham Belkssir and Vineet Naran were unable to earn the victory over Eric Poland and Dale Sandy of Wagner, losing by a 6-0 score. Belkssir and Naran had a hard time keeping the ball in bounds and struggled with communication at times. At the first flight, the pair of Santiago Canete and Artem Kapshuk picked up the point for the Owls with a 7-6 (3) win over Lucas Lu and Allen Wang.
In singles play, Temple only further dominated Wagner as all Owls earned victories at each flight. Florian Mayer was the first to clinch victory beating Ilya Kneppelhout in straight sets at the fourth flight, 6-1, 6-1. Next came Artem Kapshuk, who defeated Dale Sandy in straight sets out of the second flight, 6-3, 6-1. Santiago Canete also won in straight sets, beating Lucas Lu 6-1, 6-1 at the first flight. At the fifth flight, Uladzimir Dorash beat Charlton Boyd in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0.
Filip Stipcic and Nicolas Paulus were the two lone Owls not to earn wins in straight sets. Filip Stipcic fell behind late, but was able to defeat Wagner’s Allen Wang at the sixth flight by a score of 6-0, 1-6, 10-4. The same could also be said for Nicolas Paulus at the third flight, who earned a hard-fought win over Eric Poland, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 10-7.
Head coach Steve Mauro saw this as a good test for the team with two tough conference matchups coming on the road next week against ECU and UConn. Mauro added that the win was a good effort by his team, but they still have some work to do. When asked about the team’s recent success, Coach Mauro said, “A lot of the guys want to be a top team this year and so far so good, but it is a long season.”
