No. 65 W&M Men’s Tennis Wins at No. 73 Michigan State, 5-2

Tribe Improves to 3-0 This Season

01/26/06 10:45PM

EAST LANSING, MI - William and Mary’s men’s tennis team, ranked 65th in the nation, defeated No. 73 Michigan State, 5-2, this evening at the MSU Indoor Tennis Center.

The Tribe remains perfect at 3-0 this season, while the Spartans suffer their first loss of the year, falling to 4-1.

W&M opened the match with a 1-0 lead, taking the doubles point with wins at the bottom two positions. Senior Stephen Ward (Douglaston, NY) and freshman Dominic Pagon (Kingston, Jamaica) opened the contest with an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles over Michigan State’s Michael Flowers and Joseph McWilliams. After a loss at No. 1, the Green and Gold clinched the point with an 8-5 win by sophomore Alex Cojanu (Hallandale, FL) and freshman Billy Mulligan (Miami, FL) at No. 3 over John Allare and Scott Rasmussen.

The Tribe wasted no time in clinching the victory, winning the first three completed singles matches in straight sets to secure the win. Cojanu, the 2005 Colonial Athletic Association Co-Rookie of the Year, quickly gave W&M a 2-0 lead, defeating McWilliams, 6-1, 6-2 at No. 3. Mulligan put the Tribe one point away from victory with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 6 over Rasmussen. Pagon scored the decisive fourth point for the Green and Gold with his 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 5 over Flowers. Ward, the nation’s 57th ranked singles player, defeated Adam Monich at No. 2, 6-3, 6-3, to complete the Tribe’s scoring.

W&M continues its road trip tomorrow, with a match at No. 48 Michigan at 6:00 PM.


Match Notes: William and Mary improves to 1-1 against Michigan State since 1977 ... The Tribe’s 3-0 start is the program’s best since also opening the 2003 season with three straight wins ... Stephen Ward ties 1999 graduate Lee Harang for eighth place in W&M history with 77 career singles wins ... Ward is 15-3 in singles this season (including individual tournaments) ... Ward also leads the Tribe with a 13-2 doubles record this season.


#65 William and Mary 5, #73 Michigan State 2
Singles
1. #78 Nick Rinks (MSU) d. Colin O’Brien; 6-2, 6-2
2. #57 Stephen Ward (W&M) d. Adam Monich; 6-3, 6-3
3. Alex Cojanu (W&M) d. Joseph McWilliams; 6-1, 6-2
4. John Allare (MSU) d. Matt Rubenstein; 7-6 (5), 6-2
5. Dominic Pagon (W&M) d. Michael Flowers; 6-3, 6-4
6. Billy Mulligan (W&M) d. Scott Rasmussen; 6-4, 6-2
Order of finish: 3, 6, 5, 1, 2, 4

Doubles
1. Monich/Rinks (MSU) d. O’Brien/Rubenstein; 8-5
2. Pagon/Ward (W&M) d. Flowers/McWilliams; 8-3
3. Cojanu/Mulligan (W&M) d. Allare/Rasmussen; 8-5
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3