Seahawks hand Morgan State 7-0 loss in men’s tennis

Talented freshmen add to win total

Calvin Shomaker, Copy Editor|March 27, 2017

Andres Torres in action versus Morgan State on March 25.

UNC Wilmington’s men’s tennis team improved to 9-4 on the season and 7-1 at home with its 7-0 victory over Morgan State on Saturday.

Junoir Josh Hublitz and freshman Daniel Groom won the first doubles match on court three before junior Andres Torres and freshman Ignasi de Rueda clinched the doubles point with a 6-3 win on court one.

“I was really impressed with Morgan State,” said UNCW coach Mait DuBois. “They came out really fiery and played really good in the doubles, but we did a good job of hanging around. I thought [Andres] Torres and Josh [Hublitz] really had highlight performances.”

Freshman Michael Copeland was the first Seahawk to take care of business in singles with a quick win at the No. 6 spot 6-0, 6-1. Next, Josh Hublitz took a break from the top seed and won 6-0, 6-3 on court two for just his second win of the year. Torres played No. 1 for UNCW and won his eighth singles match 6-3, 6-4. Freshman Daniel Groom then handled Morgan State’s No. 4 player 7-5, 6-3 to put the Seahawks up 5-0 before play concluded with two UNCW wins in matches that both went three sets.

The final two matches were as close and entertaining as UNCW fans could have hoped for. With the vocal support from teammates and coaches, de Rueda battled back after losing the first set 6-4 to win the next two sets 6-3, 6-4.

On the next court over, 6-foot-5 German freshman Leon Back showed the same “workmanlike” resiliency that DuBois said he saw from de Rueda and others. After losing in a tiebreaker the first set, Back won the next two 6-3, 6-4 and sealed the 7-0 victory for the Hawks.

“For Leon, it was really good because he’s been working on his fitness,” said DuBois. “He has been doing 6 a.m. workouts and today the fitness won him the match, so it’s nice to see that payoff. I like that the match was decided, but you still felt those guys wanting to win just as bad, and if you’re a true competitor that’s what you do.”

UNCW will next host Virginia Commonwealth on April 1 at noon and George Washington on April 2 at 1 p.m. before traveling to Johnson City, Tennessee to take on Central Florida and East Tennessee State on April 8 and 9.

The last home match of the season is on April 14 versus No. 39 Old Dominion. Parking and admission are both free.

Notable – Freshman Daniel Groom (9-3) from Tasmania, Australia leads UNCW in singles wins with nine. Freshman Ignasi de Rueda (8-3) of Barcelona, Spain is tied with Colombian Andres Torres (8-3) for second most singles wins at eight a piece. Sophomore Agustin Savarino (5-5) from Argentina has five.

Quote of the Day – “We spend a lot of time on doubles,” said DuBois. “We got a lot of quality matches coming up, so the really physical, really long point, physical tennis is really working for us, so I think we are going to stay on that.”