Men’s tennis triumphs over Virginia Wesleyan

The University of Richmond men’s tennis team won 7-0 against Virginia Wesleyan University on March 16.

The Spiders went six-for-six in the singles competition and wiped the Marlins off the Westhampton Courts, redeeming themselves after coming off an ironic inverse-score match where they lost 0-7 against Rice University.

In the first singles set, senior John Walsh had three matches where he went 2-1. His first was a close-call defeat with a score of 6-7, but Walsh bounced back and finished the remaining two matches with 6-1 and 10-2 wins. 

Senior Campbell Erwin’s matches told a similar story, with a 1-6 defeat and a comeback to win. In his last two matches, he won 6-1 and 6-0. Senior Alex Wernink won his two matches, only letting up a combined five points as he went 6-2 and 6-3. 

Senior Josh Keitelman left no points by him in his singles matches and had back-to-back 6-0 wins against the Marlins. 

Junior Ricky Bell and sophomore Alaister Burke wrapped up the singles matches, letting a combined three points past them. Bell finished his matches with scores of 6-2 and 6-0, while Burke finished 6-0 and 6-1. 

UR’s order of finish for singles was Burke, Keitelman, Wernink, Bell, Erwin and Walsh. 

As the Spiders came into the doubles matches with rackets already ablaze from the singles, UR’s web claimed another three-for-three win. 

Walsh and Campbell were the first duo to take the court, where they won 6-2. Keitelman and sophomore Daniel Kliebhan had a lead win of 6-3. Finally, Burke and Bell finished up the last match with the closest doubles match score of the day, 6-4. 

The Spiders’ order of finish for the doubles match was Burke/Bell, Keitelman/Kliebhan and Walsh/Erwin. 

The UR men’s tennis team will play again at noon on March 25 against Fordham University in the Rams' home pasture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Contact sports co-editor Andrew Cardounel at andrew.cardounel@richmond.edu.