Salisbury drops tough 5-4 match to No. 29 Pomona-Pitzer
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Salisbury University men's tennis team lost a heartbreaking match to No. 29 Pomona-Pitzer College, 5-4, on Wednesday at the Pomona Tennis Courts in Claremont, Calif. The Sea Gulls and Tigers battled through five ties and four lead changes as the contest was even at 4-4 with one match left. The last match of the day proved to be very eventful as Salisbury junior Scott Burtzlaff and Pomona-Pitzer senior Cameron Taylor battled through two tiebreakers and went the distance before Taylor claimed a 7-5 (7-3), 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 victory give Pomona-Pitzer (4-8) its fourth win of the season. The match marked SU's third day of competition on its annual Spring Break trip.
Salisbury (3-4), ranked seventh in the Atlantic South region, got off to a good start in doubles as the Sea Gull tandem of freshman Daniel Barnas and sophomore Andrew Nottage defeated Drew Cohn and Alex Groth 8-3 in No. 3 doubles. SU would drop the next two matches to trail 2-1 heading in singles action. Uday Singh and Cameron Taylor beat Burtzlaff and junior Evan Thomas 8-2 at No. 1 singles while Ramsey Bernard and Grant Friedman squeezed out an 8-6 victory over sophomore David Lupinetti and junior Marcus Robinson.
The Sea Gulls picked up victories in the first two matches of singles to take a 3-2 lead. Barnas struck first at No. 4 singles with a straight set win over Groth 6-2, 6-0. Nottage followed up with a win in straight sets of his own with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Bernard in No. 5 singles. Pomona-Pitzer, ranked eighth in the West region, evened the match at three apiece when Friedman won a 7-4 tie-breaker to defeat senior Sasha Felikson 6-4, 7-6 at No. 6 singles. Lupinetti helped SU regain the lead as he won at No. 3 singles in straight sets over Singh, 6-4, 6-3. The Tigers battled back to knot the match at four apiece when Nick Taqliarino edged out Thomas 7-5, 6-3 in No. 2 singles. The tied match set the stage for the Burtzlaff-Taylor showdown.
Salisbury heads into its final day of action on its Spring Break trip with a match against No. 25 Cal Lutheran University on Thursday, March 19, at 5 p.m.
