Wolverine men near perfect in winning 25th-straight PAC title; Riley MVP for third time

Heading into the 2015 spring season, the Grove City College men's tennis team were the clear favorites to win the Presidents' Athletic Conference title. After all, the Wolverines had returned everyone from the 2014 team that won its 24th-straight conference crown by sweeping all nine flights at the conference championships.

Playing with a target on your back can certainly provide a great test, but Grove City's veteran lineup proved to be up to the challenge, blanking the rest of the conference by winning all seven matches by perfect 9-0 scores. In those matches, the Wolverines didn't drop a single set and lost fewer than 12 total games in four of the seven matches.

At the conference championships at the Pennbriar Club in Erie, Grove City would take care of business on Day One to advance to championship finals in all nine flights, but not without some tests along the way. Both Dan Schafhauser and Jon Graber had to rally from first set losses to win their semifinal matches at third and fourth singles while Jon Fleet had to fight for every point in a 6-4, 7-5 win in his sixth singles semifinal. Meanwhile, an up-and-coming Washington and Jefferson and team also advanced to the championship match of eight of the nine flights, meaning that Saturday's finals would prove decisive.

The Wolverines would win easily at both first and third doubles, but the Presidents' narrow 9-8 win over Grove City at second doubles kept W&J alive. However, the Wolverines answered by sweeping the singles competition to earn their 25th PAC title in a row.

Riley was tested in his final by W&J freshman Sean Carrick, needing a tiebreaker to earn a 7-6 victory in the first set, but Riley's skill and experience allowed him to cruise to a 6-1 second-set win to clinch his second-straight PAC Player of the Year honor and the third of his career. With that, Riley became the first player since former Wolverine Patrick Donahoe (2001-03) to win three PAC MVP awards and the seventh in the history of the conference.



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