Lexington, Ky. – Senior Day was one of celebration for the Transylvania men's tennis team and one of culmination for their opponents, the Rose-Hulman Engineers who captured an 8-1 match victory on Saturday at the Bluegrass Racquet Club.
The win lifted the Engineers to an 8-0 conference record to complete their season in first place in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
While Rose-Hulman claimed the majority of the matches, many of their victories did not come without multiple battles from their peers in the Pioneers.
The meeting at the Lexington Racquet Club featured three intense matches across the courts; in #1 doubles, seniors Robert Albrecht and Dylan Conner threw the kitchen sink at Georges Adam and Brandon Benedict before the Engineers duo pulled away for an 8-4 win. Zachary Meikle and Luke Groene fought Cam Metzger and Andre Adam to the brink in #2 doubles, but the visitors grinded out an 8-5 pro-set result.
A key victory for the Pioneers came in #3 doubles, where the duo of senior Joshua Buckman and freshman Sam Hodgson secured an 8-5 win over Joe Kendadll and Matt Conrad for the Pioneers' point.
Action shifted to singles where Adam won over Albrecht in #1 singles, 6-2, 6-2 in a top shelf match that featured a cornucopia of long-lasting rallies and deuce after deuce. Benedict prevailed over Meikle 6-0, 6-0 in #1 singles, while Conner gave Metzger a fight before falling, 6-2, 6-3 in #3 singles.
Adam took a 6-0, 6-1 win over Buckman in #4 singles. The last two matches of the day featured a great joust between Conrad and Groene in #5 singles, while Brandon Goldacker and Hodgson danced to the limit in #6 singles.
Conrad took a 6-1 first set victory of Groene before the Pioneer upperclassman found his stride and took the second set, 6-4. In the tiebreaking third round, Conrad was the first to 10 with a 10-6 super tiebreaker win. In the other match, Goldacker won 6-2, 7-5 over Hodgson who put together another solid late-season performance as the freshman continues to emerge.
Transylvania has one remaining regular season match at Franklin. After multiple rescheduling attempts, the Pioneers are slated to face the Grizzlies this Tuesday in Indiana.
