BALTIMORE – The Franklin & Marshall men's tennis team jumped back into intercollegiate competition on Saturday as the Diplomats traveled to Baltimore to take on Centennial Conference preseason favorite Johns Hopkins. Although the Blue Jays emerged an 8-1 winner, the Diplomats showed grit and determination throughout the lineup.
The match highlight was a straight-set victory for Justin Pace who played No. 2 singles in the season opener. Pace got the early jump on his opponent as he doubled him up with a 6-3 opening set. The Diplomats' junior capped his victory with a 6-4 win during the second set. With the win, Pace improved to 3-1 overall in his singles career at F&M.
By the numbers
Pace's win marked the highest-ranked win of his career as he played No. 4 singles last year before the season was interrupted and ultimately canceled. Despite just one win to show for the team's efforts, several F&M players posed a tough challenge to the Blue Jays. In doubles, F&M's came closest to a win at No. 2 where Tristan Steffe joined Pace in the middle doubles match. That duo was just edged out by an 8-6 score. The No. 1 (Adrian Charchalis/Adith Chandavarkar) and No. 3 (Anthony Casale/Isaac Rockower) doubles pairings both secured four games during their matchups.
Playing No. 4 singles, Casale pushed his JHU opponent to extra games in both sets. He dropped a hard-fought 7-4 tiebreak after evenly splitting the first 12 games of set one. He also forced an extra game during the second set before being edged out once again in the final points, 7-5. Charchalis (No. 1) and Steffe (No. 4) also took multiple games from the Blue Jays while Rockower (No. 5) and Ben Cooke (No. 6) played eight-game supersets with the team score decided by the time they hit the courts in the season opener.
Up next
Franklin & Marshall will continue its Centennial Conference round robin next Saturday, March 27 when the Diplomats travel to Ursinus. First serves in that match are set for 1 p.m. F&M will get its first chance to play at the Brooks Tennis Center in two weeks when Muhlenberg visits campus.
