April 20, 2013
Grove City captures 23rd straight title
ERIE, Pa. -- The Grove City College men's tennis team captured its 23rd straight Presidents' Athletic Conference championship Saturday at the Pennbriar Club by slipping past favored Saint Vincent in the team standings. Grove City finished the two-day event with 46 points and Saint Vincent had 44.
The conference title gives Grove City an automatic berth in next month's NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.
Saint Vincent players held the top seed in eight of the nine championship flights but Grove City won five of the nine competitions. All nine championship flights featured Grove City-Saint Vincent matchups in the finals.
The Wolverines pulled ahead Saturday morning by winning two of three doubles flights. At second doubles, senior Anthony Rosselli (Poland, Ohio/Poland) and sophomore Colby Beighey (Fombell, Pa./Riverside) downed Saint Vincent's top-seeded combination of Chris Andrejcik and Tony Costantino in the finals, 8-6.
Meanwhile, at third doubles, senior Blake Brogan (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) and freshman Jonathan Graber (Atglen, Pa./Octorara) earned a 9-7 win in the finals over the top-seeded team of Sean Malone and Nathan Walch of Saint Vincent.
Grove City then secured the conference title by winning three of the six singles draws. Rosselli rolled to a 6-2, 6-2 finals win over Saint Vincent's top-seeded Anthony Nemanic at No. 3 singles. Brogan edged top-seeded Andrejcik at fifth singles for the title, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Graber won the sixth singles title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Malone, who had been the top seed.
Grove City players earned runner-up in each of the other four championship flights. Senior Caleb Fuller (Columbus, Ind./Homeschooled) and sophomore Peter Riley (Woodbury, Pa./Northern Bedford) took second at first doubles after falling to Saint Vincent's Dave Cenkner and Nemanic in the finals, 8-4. Cenkner also topped Riley for the first singles crown, 6-4, 6-1.
Fuller reached the finals at second singles before dropping a 6-4, 6-0 decision to Costantino. At No. 4 singles, Beighey fell to Walch in the final round, 6-3, 6-1.
Rosselli and Beighey began their march to the second doubles title by defeated the Bethany tandem of Jared Roque and Kyle Booker in the quarterfinals 8-1. In the semifinals, the Rosselli-Beighey combo topped Waynesburg's Jon Anderson and Philip Littlejohn, 8-5.
The Brogan-Graber duo opened the third doubles draw with an 8-1 win over Bethany's Dakota Maravelis and Dylan Schooley in the quarterfinals. Brogan and Graber then downed the Thiel tandem of Logan Sturgeon and Trevor Fancher in the semifinal round, 8-4.
Rosselli blanked W&J's Dane Thomas in the third singles quarterfinals, 6-0 and 6-0. He yielded just one game to Sturgeon in the semifinals en route to a 6-1, 6-0 victory. Brogan bounced Booker, 6-0, 6-2, in the fifth singles quarterfinals. Brogan then held off Westminster's Ryan Carr in the semifinals, 6-3 and 7-5.
Graber also earned two straight-set wins on his way to the championship match. He blanked Schooley, 6-0, 6-0 and then earned a 6-2, 6-1 victory over W&J's Shihao Liang in the semifinals.
Fuller and Riley opened the first doubles draw with an 8-3 win over W&J's Samuel Miller and Christopher Fadil. In the semifinals, Fuller-Riley picked up an 8-2 win over Thomas More's Eric Thompson and Sergio Pascual. Riley opened the first singles tournament with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Miller. Riley then eliminated Thiel's Richard Parks in the semifinals, 6-4 and 6-1.
At No. 2 singles, Fuller downed W&J's Renato Popovic in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 6-0 before chalking up a 6-0, 6-1 semifinal victory over Pascual. Beighey, the top seed at fourth singles, blanked Thomas More's Tim Rice in the opening round, 6-0, 6-0. Beighey then defeated Thiel's Shun Kogai in the semifinals by a 6-1, 6-2 score.
Head coach Jeff Buxton earned the conference's Coach of the Year award.
Thiel finished third with 14 points, followed by Westminster (12), Waynesburg (9), Thomas More (7), W&J (3) and Bethany (0).
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