KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Conventional wisdom in college tennis is that the winner of the doubles point has a huge advantage in the match, but William Woods turned that upside down at the ITA NAIA National Team Indoor Championship, claiming a fifth-place finish with wins over no. 7 seed Xavier University of Louisiana (4-3) and no. 4 Southeastern University (4-2) after losing 4-2 to no. 3 seed University of Northwestern Ohio on Friday.
"These student-athletes represented William Wood so well this weekend," said head coach
Chance Joost. "The heart, the passion, the respect for the game, officials and opponents were on full display, and I couldn't be more proud and grateful to be their coach. Earning two wins over top-five teams is a great way to start off the season."
The Racers took a quick lead to start doubles play on Friday, with number two pairing Martin Stanchev and Malik Omarkhanov downing
Vaclav Schneider and
Vitek Subert 6-1 in just 17 minutes.
Ben Grumley and
Zinovii Nahirniak answered with a 6-4 win over Sergio Conde and Daniel Vishnick to give
Felix Diedrichs and
Andres De Los Rios Kolejewska the opportunity to finish the comeback 6-2 over Mathieu Strauss and Lucas Perez.
UNOH swung the momentum quickly in the opposite direction, winning at the three, four and five lines to take a 3-1 match lead. Schneider fended off elimination at the one with a 7-6(2), 6-4 win over Conde, but Vishnick closed out the match at two singles with a 7-5, 1-6, 6-0 win over Nahirniak.
XULA needed just 31 minutes to claim the doubles point on Saturday, with Jacobi Bain and Nereo Suarez winning 6-1 over Schneider and Subert at the two line and Dedric Ray winning 6-4 over De Los Rios Kolejewska and Diedrichs at the three.
With Schneider out of the Woods lineup for singles, the shuffling initially looked problematic for the Owls, as VanDer Woody swept WWU's traditional number four
Stepan Mach 6-3, 6-0 at the three singles to give the Gold Rush a 2-0 lead. Subert scored first for WWU with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Ray at the five line, but Suarez kept the margin at two matches with a 6-0, 7-6(4) win over De Los Rios Kolejewska.
Grumley (6-4, 7-5 over Bain) at the two and Nahirniak (7-6(5), 6-4 over Julius Hell) at the one tied the match up and shifted the focus to the six singles match happening on court three.
After stepping into the lineup to replace Schneider, Diedrichs made his case to be a permanent fixture, sweeping over Jered Wilson 6-0, 6-1 in just 70 minutes.
"The guts these guys showed in singles was insane," said Joost. "To come out and play singles in that way after playing so poorly in doubles as a collective just tells you so much about the bond of this team. We're a family as we were determined to not let each other down again. This was a big win against a very good and very well-coached team. I have massive respect for Xavier and Coach (Alan) Green."
Woods dropped the doubles point in Sunday's fifth-place match, with Schneider and Subert earning WWU's lone win, a 6-1 win over the Fire's Victor De Oliveira and Alejandro Orihuela.
After controlling most of his match against De Oliveira at the three, disaster nearly struck for Grumley and the Owls on the final point as the senior rolled his right ankle on a sliding winer and crumpled to the court one point shy of victory. After a quick examination and equally as quick tape job applied by the athletic training staff, Grumley finished off the 6-1, 6-2 win and immediately traded tennis shoes and racket for crutches and bags of ice.
With the match tied 1-1, Diego Menendez Vina was able to answer for Southeastern at the two with a 6-3, 6-1 triumph over Nahirniak. Subert tied things up at five singles with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Mark Griffin, with Mach claiming a 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(2) win over Piero Fernandez to give Woods a 3-2 lead.
The race was on between Saturday's hero Diedrichs and the man he replaced in the lineup as to who would clinch the win for Woods, as both were involved in three-set thrillers. Schneider would get to the finish line first, wrapping a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 comeback win over Bruno Pessoa.
Woods is off for three weeks before hitting the road to take on NCAA Division II Rockhurst. The match is set for a 3 p.m. start at the Northland Racquet Club in North Kansas City, Mo.
