Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Air Force
College MatchDay Ends in Defeat
February 16, 2019 | Men's Tennis
ORLANDO, FL - In front of a massive crowd in attendance for College MatchDay at the USTA National Campus, the Army West Point men's tennis team battled from start to finish, but came up short versus rival Air Force, falling 4-2 to the Falcons.
"Everyone just kept hanging around and fighting," said Associate Head Coach Randy Rowley. "We're starting to show some growth -- with four plebes, who are still learning, for them to hang around and have an opportunity to win, is something to be proud of. We can take some good things from this, but we're at that point now where we need to win one. Tomorrow hopefully we'll take what we learned today and go out and play hard and see if we can win one."
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Army continues to impress in doubles play this season. The Cadets opened up the match winning at No. 3 and No. 2 doubles to take the early match lead.
- The Black Knights struggled out the gate as singles play begin, losing all six opening sets to the Falcons.
- After falling at No.'s 5, 6, and 1, Army would rally in the remaining matches to keep it close. The Black Knights found themselves down 3-1, but showed resolve to keep it close.
- Freshman Diego Huttepain dropped the first set at No. 4, and was trailing in the second, before finishing off Tadhg Collins 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
- The last two matches both went to three sets, as Nikita Larichev and David Mitchell looked to keep Army alive.
- The clinch for Air Force would come at No. 2, with Luke Sanderson coming out on top, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND GAME NOTES
- Air Force now leads the all-time series versus Army, 7-6.
- Army won its fourth doubles point of the season.
- David Mitchell and David Gorshein are now 4-2 on the year in doubles play.
- Diego Huttepain earned his second singles win of the spring season.
BOX SCORE
Doubles
No. 1 Tadhg Collins / Patrick Sklenka (AF) def. Myles Conlin / Nikita Larichev (Army), 6-3
No. 2 David Gorshein / David Mitchell (Army) def. Robert Baylon / Isaac Perez (AF), 7-5
No. 3 Diego Huttepain / Alejandro Quiros (Army) def. Jamie Bautista / Paul Hendrix (AF), 6-3
Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles
No. 1 Patrick Sklenka (AF) def. Myles Conlin (Army), 6-4, 7-6
No. 2 Luke Sanderson (AF) def. David Mitchell (Army), 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
No. 3 Paul Hendrix (AF) vs. Nikita Larichev (Army), (UF) 6-2, 5-7, 5-2
No. 4 Diego Huttepain (Army) def. Tadhg Collins (AF), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
No. 5 Robert Baylon (AF) def. David Gorshein (Army), 6-2, 6-0
No. 6 James Scotty (AF) def. Anant Mundra (Army), 6-1, 6-2
Order of Finish: 5, 6, 1, 4, 2
UP NEXT
The Black Knights will wrap up their Florida swing tomorrow with a visit to Winter Park to take on Rollins College at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Players Mentioned
