The draw for the ITA Small College National Championships is made up of the winners of the ITA doubles tournaments from the 9 regions across the U.S. (The Northwest and Texas region play a play in match to determine who gets into the draw). Just to get to this point is an accomplishment itself. This is the second time in UWW Tennis history that the Men have sent someone down to Mobile to represent the 'Hawks. The last time the Warhawks won an ITA draw was in 2010 when Jake Macey and Erik Scanlan teamed up to win the ITA Midwest doubles draw. I was not able to be at the matches with the Gentlemen, soI thought I would let Frank inform you about their trip to Mobile instead.
"Play for
Mitch and Byron began on Thursday, as doubles plays two afternoon
matches on Day 1. In their first match, they played a duo from Johns
Hopkins. This was a true battle as the first set was tight all the way
through. The Warhawks dropped the first set 5-7 after being up 40-15 in
the 5-6 game trying to send it to a tiebreak. In the seconds set, the
set was nottted at 4-4 before Hopkins got the last two games to win the
match. Just a couple hours later, the Warhawks were back on the court,
this time facing Emory's team. The Hawks uncharacteristically started
off slowly, falling down two breaks 4-1. Then they woke up and went on a
tear, evening it up and going to a first set tiebreak. The Hawks did
not get the breaks and fell short in that tiebreak. Their hot streak
that they started in the first set continued in the second set as the
Hawks this time got up two breaks 4-1 before the match swung again.
Emory now went on a run and won the next 5 games to shock us all.
The
Warhawk pair dug deep, and decided they really wanted their third and
final match. Their hard luck in close matches continued unfortunately
however, and they lost their tightest match of all. In the first set
against Drew University in the 7th place match was a dead heat. We had
several break chances, but neither team was able to break serve and we
lost the first set 7-6. In the second set the Warhawks were down a
break 4-1 but broke back twice to win 7-5. It seemed we had all the
momentum, but Drew got off to a quick start and never looked back in the
tiebreak. It was upsetting for the guys to be just edged out in three
consecutive close matches, but this tournament showed that all 8 teams
down there were pretty darn close in ability. A couple big points were
the difference in each match. The guys should be proud of what they
acheieved to be the top team from the Midwest representing their
region. We are all proud!! The guys traditional season will start up
in January and they will play through the end of May"-Frank Barnes
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