Men's Tennis Suffers Road Loss Wednesday Night at Monmouth, 5-1

Wednesday, February 24

West Long Branch, N.J.

7 p.m.

Drexel University

Monmouth

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Men's Tennis Suffers Road Loss Wednesday Night at Monmouth, 5-1

2/24/2016 11:16:00 PM | Men's Tennis

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – The Drexel men's tennis team suffered just its second loss of the season, falling Wednesday night, 5-1, to the Monmouth Hawks.

The Dragons are now 7-2 on the season after dropping the singles-only matchup against the Hawks.

"Monmouth is one of our toughest competitors this season," head coach Mehdi Rhazali said. "We got off to a slow start in many of the matches, but we played quality tennis in the second sets and the momentum started to shift. We were good, but you have to start playing well, aggressive and smart from the first point to stay in it until the end with a team like Monmouth."

Drexel got its lone win from Sinan Orhon at No. 5 singles. The freshman dropped the first set then rattled off the next two to steal the 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Christian Vieira. Hamza Laalej pushed his match to a third set after winning the second set in a tiebreak. However, he would ultimately fall to Nicola Pipoli at No. 4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1.

Prior to the match, Laalej and Balaji Lakshmanan were named the Colonial Athletic Association Doubles Performer of the Week by the conference. Click here for the story.

The Dragons will return to action when both the men and the women host Colgate at RiverWinds on Saturday. The women will play at 3 p.m. followed by the men at 7 p.m.

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Monmouth 5, Drexel 1
Singles
Przemyslaw Filipek (MU) DEF Xabier Saavedra (DU), 6-2, 6-2
Vidit Vaghela (MU) DEF Andrew Sinai (DU), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
Gomez (MU) DEF Balaji Lakshmanan (DU), 6-3, 6-2
Nicola Pipoli (MU) DEF Hamza Laalej (DU), 6-4, 6-7, 6-1
Sinan Orhon (DU) DEF Christian Vieira (MU), 2-6, 6-4, 6-0
Alberto Giuffrida (MU) DEF Kashyap Ashok (DU), 6-4, 6-3

Doubles
Laalej & Lakshmanan (DU) vs. Filipek & Gomez (MU) - unfinished
Orhon & Ashok (DU) vs. Vaghela & Pipoli (MU) - unfinished
Saavedra & Sinai (DU) vs. Vieira & Giuffrida (MU) - unfinished