DES MOINES, IOWA - Throughout its 47-match home-court winning streak spanning the past five seasons the Drake men's tennis team has had many close calls and on Saturday (Feb. 7) the magic came to an end as No. 48 Denver rallied from a 3-0 deficit to post a 4-3 victory over the Bulldogs at the Drake Tennis Center.
The loss was the first by Drake since the 2004-05 campaign and dropped the Bulldogs to 0-3 overall, while the Pioneers improved their ledger to 3-2.
"When you are up 3-0, you have to finish,” Drake head coach Chase Hodges commented. “There is no excuse in losing this match. We are still a work in progress and the goal is to be playing our best tennis in April."
The match got off to a strong start for the Blue and White as the Bulldogs swept all three doubles contests, highlighted by the duo of senior Maor Zirkin (KIbutz Hazor, Israel) and freshman Evgeny Silitski (Minsk, Belarus) clinching the point with an 8-4 triumph over Martin Zimmermann and David Simson at the top doubles position.
Zirkin extended the lead to 2-0 with his 198th career victory, a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Zimmermann at the No. 1 singles slot.
The margin swelled to 3-0 after senior Ivan Mendoza's (Manila, The Philippines) 6-3, 6-4 triumph against Ravjot Dhatt at the No. 6 singles hole.
Denver cut the deficit to 3-1 claiming the second singles match.
Junior Guilherme Marsiglia (Porto Alegre, Brazil) was well on his way to sealing the victory at No. 4 as he won his first set versus Yannick Weihs and held a commanding 4-1 lead in the second set. From there the karma went in favor of the Pioneers as Weihs rallied to force a third set with a 6-4 victory. He was well on his way to winning the final frame racing to a 5-3 advantage before Marsiglia fired back three unanswered tallies to assume a 6-5 margin. Marsiglia was up 30-0 in the final game before his opponent came back to tie the tilt at six and force the tiebreaker. Weihs proved victorious in the extra frame, 7-3, to bring Denver to within one point, 3-2.
The Pioneers squared the match at three with a victory at the No. 3 slot, before ending the Bulldogs' home-court winning streak with a triumph at the No. 4 position.
"This is the first loss that I've experienced in four years at home," Hodges said. "Give Denver credit for fighting today as we did not close the match."
Drake returns to action on Feb. 14 as the Bulldogs entertain Saint Louis in a 12:00 p.m. tilt.
SINGLES:
No. 1 Maor Zirkin (DU) vs. Martin Zimmermann (DEN), 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 NO. 83 David Simson (DEN) def. Evgeny Silitski (DU), 6-2, 6-4
No. 3 Benny Althaus (DEN) def. Mauricio Ballivian (DU), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6)
No. 4 Yannick Weihs (DEN) def. Ricardo Lau (DU), 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-2
No. 5 Johan Gunnarsson (DEN) def. Guilherme Marsiglia (DU), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3)
No. 6 Ivan Mendoza (DU) def. Ravjot Dhatt (DEN), 6-3, 6-4
DOUBLES:
No. 1 Zirkin/Silitski (DU) def. Zimmermann/Simson (DEN), 8-4
No. 2 Marsiglia/Lau (DU) def. Dhatt/Althaus (DEN), 8-7 (6)
No. 3 Ballivian/Mendoza (DU) def. Gunnarsson/Weihs (DEN), 8-2
