The Norwich University men's tennis team punched its ticket to its first-ever trip to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship match with a 5-4 victory over Suffolk University on Wednesday evening at Shapiro Field House.
Sophomore Jay Carter (Glassboro, N.J.) rallied to win back-to-back sets after dropping the first to clinch the victory with a dramatic win at No. 5 singles over Jacob Duggan. Carter fell 6-2, before rallying to win 6-3 and 6-1 in the next two sets.
Freshman Jeff Purdy (Grantham, N.H.) also won at No. 6 singles after Suffolk had won three straight singles matches to take a 4-3 lead and put Norwich's victory hopes in doubt. Purdy made quick work of Jose Gonzalez, winning 6-1, 6-0 to knot the match up and 4-4 and set up Carter's showdown with Duggan for all the marbles.
Carter and Purdy also combined to take No. 3 doubles with an impressive 8-0 shutout victory over Duggan and Gonzalez to improve to 8-1 on the season. Norwich also picked up a crucial victory at No. 2 doubles with freshman Marc-Olivier Tourigny (Drummondville, Quebec) and senior Patrick Ogden (Madison, Ala.) defeating Alonso Vera and Francesco Saia, 8-6 to give the Cadets a 2-1 lead after the doubles portion of the matches.
Sophomore Ian Hyte (Marblehead, Mass.) also picked up a victory at No. 3 singles, beating Vela 6-4 and 6-2 to account for the last Cadet victory of the day.
Suffolk was led by its top 1-2 tandem of senior Marc Winkler and junior Calixto Romero. The two combined to take No. 1 doubles over Ryan Grindle (Essex Junction, Vt.) and Hyte 8-4.
Grindle beat Romero 6-3 in the first set, but dropped the next two by scores of 6-3 each time to fall at No. 1 singles. Winkler also lost to Tourigny in the first set at No. 2 singles by a 6-1 score. However, the 2014 GNAC Player of the Year rallied to take the next two sets 6-2 and 6-3. Saia won No. 4 singles with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Ogden to account for Suffolk's wins on the day.
Norwich (7-2) will host the 2015 GNAC Championship on Saturday at a time to be determined vs. the winner of the GNAC South Division between Ramapo and Rutgers-Newark.
(Story courtesy of Norwich University Sports Information)