Men's Tennis Falls in Marathon Match To Penn 4-3

 NORFOLK, Va. – In a match that went nearly four hours on Saturday afternoon, the Old Dominion men's tennis team fell 4-3 to Penn at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center.
 
"Losing five out of six tie breakers today is never a coincidence," said ODU Head Coach Dominik Mueller. "I felt like we weren't ourselves in those moments and that's the difference between winning and losing those close sets. Our DNA as a team is relaxed energy and we weren't able to bring that consistently today."
 
In doubles, the Monarchs got off to a quick start with Yanis Moundir and Maxime Mareschal-Hay taking a 6-1 win at No. 3. Penn bounced back into it with a 6-4 win at the No. 2 spot. The decisive match went to a tiebreaker at No. 1 where Penn took a 7-6 (9-7) win for the team point.
 
Singles saw ODU start off with a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 4 by Moundir for a 2-1 lead. Penn tied the match with a win at No. 6, before the Monarchs took the next two contests. Connor van Schalkwyk won 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 and Aryan Saleh recorded a 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 5 to put ODU up 3-2.
 
Penn took the last two matches at No. 3 and No. 1, with the five sets all going to tiebreakers and Penn winning four of the five tiebreakers.
 
ODU jumps right back into action on Sunday morning with a 10 a.m. match against Brown on Darryl Cummings Day at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center.
 
Doubles
Zachery Lim/Manfredi Graziani (Penn) def. Codie van Schalkwyk/Connor van Schalkwyk 7-6 (9-7)
Aaron Sandler/Kian Vakili (Penn) def. Cosme Rolland de Ravel/Jakob Cadonau 6-4
Yanis Moundir/Maxime Mareschal-Hay (ODU) def. Matthew Rutter/Baylor Sai 6-1
Oder of Finish: 3,2,1
 
Singles
Manfredi Graziani (Penn) def. Codie van Schalkwyk 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-1)
Connor van Schalkwyk (ODU) def. Kian Vakili 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
Aaron Sandler (Penn) def. Cosme Rolland de Ravel 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4)
Yanis Moundir (ODU) def. Baylor Sai 6-2, 6-3
Aryan Saleh (ODU) def. Luka Butera 7-5, 6-3
Matthew Rutter (Penn) def. Jakob Cadonau 6-3, 7-5
Order of Finish: 4,6,2,5,3,1