BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (April 11) – The Waynesburg University men's tennis team traveled to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania to take on the Geneva Golden Tornadoes in a Presidents' Athletic Conference matchup. After going 2-1 as a team in doubles competition, the Yellow Jackets swept the singles flights to come out with the 8-1 win.
Waynesburg (7-4, 3-2) jumped out to the early 1-0 lead thanks to the senior combination of
Jonah Cooper (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian) and
Josh Denham (New Kensington, Pa./Valley) at first doubles. The pair emerged victorious to move to 9-2 on the year when playing together behind an 8-5 decision.
The freshman duo of
Joe English (Smithfield, Pa./Homeschooled) and Connor Cassidy (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) came up just short at second doubles, as Geneva (6-8, 2-5) managed an 8-6 win. The third doubles pairing of senior
Brian Drake (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) and junior
Tanner McKnight (Grove City, Pa./Grove City) pulled out an 8-6 victory of their own to swing the momentum back in the Yellow Jackets' favor.
Cooper and Denham took care of business at first and second singles, winning their matches 6-4, 6-4 and 6-2, 6-3, respectively, for each of their second wins of the afternoon.
Third, fourth and fifth singles all swung in Waynesburg's favor, but they were all hard-fought battles. English just scraped by in his match at third singles, 7-6, 7-5. Cassidy won the first set at fourth singles 6-2 but dropped the second one 7-5 to go to a deciding third set, where it went back and forth until Cassidy final broke the tie with an 11-9 decision.
At fifth singles, Drake also went to a deciding third set, which he took 10-6. fSophomore
Brett Thumm (Beaver Falls, Pa./Riverside) had little trouble at sixth singles, coming out on top 6-3, 6-0.
With the win, Waynesburg now sits in sole possession of fourth place in the Presidents' Athletic Conference.
The Yellow Jackets are back in action this afternoon for a non-conference match against Penn State Altoona in Altoona at 4:30 p.m.
