Singles Propels Tribe to Win over No. 65 Brown

The Tribe ran its winning streak to five matches with the victory over the Bears.

02/20/07 10:30PM

Williamsburg - On the strength of its play in singles, the No. 75 William and Mary men’s tennis team ran its winning streak to five matches with a 4-3 victory over No. 65 Brown on Feb. 20. After dropping the doubles point, the Tribe claimed the first four singles matches off the court to tally the victory and improve to 7-5 on the year. The last time W&M won more than five straight matches in a season was during the 2000 campaign when it won six straight.

The momentum started in the Tribe’s direction during the doubles slate. Junior Alex Cojanu and freshman Keziel Juneau upset the No. 15 nationally ranked Brown doubles tandem of Basu Ratnam and Eric Thomas, 8-4. The victory was the third straight for the Cojanu-Juneau pair since the duo joined forces over the weekend for wins over Norfolk State and Longwood. Brown, who upset No. 51 Virginia Tech on Feb. 18, grabbed the doubles point with victories at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions to take an early 1-0 cushion.

Senior Colin O’Brien continued to roll at the top singles spot, winning in straight sets to tie the team competition at one. The Dublin, Ireland native tallied his fifth straight win, downing Thomas, 6-3, 6-3. The winning streak is a career long for O’Brien, who improved to 13-9 overall on the season and 6-3 at the top singles position.

Sophomore Marwan Ramadan gave the Tribe the lead with a straight sets win at the No. 4 slot. After taking the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (5), Ramadan took the contest, claiming the second set, 7-5, over Brown’s Saurabh Kohli. The win upped Ramadan’s winning streak to four matches and pushed his season mark to 11-8.

The Tribe notched its third consecutive straight sets victory with Juneau pushing the Tribe advantage to 3-1. The Repentigny, Quebec native won both sets in tiebreakers, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (0), over Ratnam. The victory was Juneau fifth straight and tied him for the team lead with 13 singles victories. O’Brien and fellow freshman Richard Wardell both have 13 singles victories as well on the year.

With three singles matches headed to third sets, the result of the match hung in the balance. Sophomore Alex Zuck squashed any Brown hopes of a road victory, winning at the No. 5 slot to clinch the Tribe upset. After dropping the first set, 6-3, Zuck responded by taking the second and third sets, 6-2, 6-2, over Chris Lee. He extended his career-long winning streak to six matches and upped his singles ledger to 12-8.

The College returns to action on Sunday, Feb. 25, when it hosts the final two matches of its current eight-match homestand. W&M will host No. 16 Boise State on 10:30 a.m., before welcoming CAA foe George Mason to Williamsburg at 4 p.m. Both matches will be played at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center.

#75 William and Mary 4, #65 Brown 3
Singles
No. 1 - Colin O’Brien (W&M) def. Eric Thomas (Brown) - 6-3, 6-3
No. 2 - #82 Dan Hanegby (Brown) def. #49 Alex Cojanu (W&M) - 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
No. 3 - Marwan Ramadan (W&M) def. Saurabh Kohli (Brown) - 7-6 (5), 7-5
No. 4 - Keziel Juneau (W&M) def. Basu Ratnam (Brown) - 7-6(4), 7-6(0)
No. 5 - Alex Zuck (W&M) def. Chris Lee (Brown) - 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
No. 6 - Zack Pasanen (Brown) def. Richard Wardell (W&M) - 3-6, 6-0, 6-4
Finishing Order: 1, 3, 4, 5*, 6, 2

Doubles
No. 1 - #25 Hanegby/Lee (Brown) def. O’Brien/Zuck (W&M) - 8-3
No. 2 - Cojanu/Juneau (W&M) def #15 Ratnam/Thomas (Brown) - 8-4
No. 3 - Pasanen/Kohli def. Sud/Wardell (W&M) - 8-5
Finishing Order: 2, 1, 3*