The Denison men's tennis team split a pair of matches against nationally-ranked opponents on the opening day of the Mary Washington Invitational. The Big Red picked up a 7-2 victory over 20th-ranked North Carolina Wesleyan on Saturday morning, but suffered a 6-3 setback to 28th-ranked Mary Washington.
Denison carried a one-point edge into singles competition after winning two of three doubles flights. The second doubles team of Andrew Marczak and Casey Cempre doubled up Eduardo Ugalde and Ben Tolhurst, while Jeffrey LoDuca and Jackson O'Gorman-Bean improved to 2-0 on the season following an 8-3 decision over Elias Kerem and Philipp Vylegzhanin.
Clinging to a slim 2-1 lead, the Big Red dominated singles play going 5-1 over the course of six flights. Senior Juan Guerra moved to 2-1 at first singles after winning a three-set decision over Mikhail Konnov. After suffering a 6-4 setback in the first set, Guerra rebounded with back-to-back victories via 6-3, 6-4 scores.
DU won sets two through four in straight-sets thanks to dominate performances from Grant Veltman, Marczak and Cempre. Veltman moved to 5-5 on the year after defeating Peter Hviid 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles. Marczak and Cempre posted identical 6-1, 6-3 wins over Tolhurst and Ugalde at the third and fourth flights, respectively.
The Big Red's final victory came at sixth singles where O'Gorman-Bean won a three-set battle with Vylegzhanin. The two traded off 6-2 decision in the opening two sets to setup a super tie-break in the third. After a long battle, the DU sophomore grinded out a 14-12 victory to close out the match.
Against the host Eagles, Denison once again carried a 2-1 lead into singles play after picking up victories in the top two flights. Guerra and Veltman edged Tyler Carey and Evan Charles, 8-6, at first doubles. The win snapped a three-match skid for the Big Red duo. Cempre and Marczak improved to 2-0 on the day following an 8-5 decision over Stratton Gilmore and Brandon Griffin.
Unlike their match against N.C. Wesleyan, the Big Red couldn't capitalize on the lead as Mary Washington won five of six singles flights to pick up the win. Cempre posted DU's lone singles win at flight No. 4. After dropping the opening set 7-5 to Alexander Blakhin, the junior won back-to-back sets via 6-4 scores to earn the point.
Denison (2-2) wraps up the Mary Washington Invitational on Sunday against Vassar. Match time is slated for 9 a.m.
