Tribe Falls at No. 26 Wake Forest

Junior Alex Cojanu wins his third straight match in singles.

02/03/07 4:30PM

Winston-Salem, N.C. - The William and Mary men’s tennis team fell at No. 26 Wake Forest, 6-1, on Feb. 3. Junior Alex Cojanu claimed the lone Tribe victory with a win at the No. 2 singles positions. The College fell to 2-3 on the year, but all three defeats have come at the hands of teams ranked 26th or higher in the current ITA Rankings.

Wake Forest claimed the opening doubles point with victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. The Demon Deacons then notched singles victories at the No. 1, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles slots to claim its third victory of the season. Wake Forest defeated No. 48 Northwestern and No. 49 San Diego by identical 7-0 scores.

Cojanu won his third straight dual-match and improved to 12-6 overall this season. The Hallandale, Fla., native battled his way to the victory at the No. 2 slot. After dropping the opening set in a tiebreaker, 7-6, Cojanu took the second in similar fashion, 7-6. With the outcome of the team match already decided, Cojanu, who is ranked No. 49 nationally, and Wake Forest’s Andrew Hamar played a super tiebreaker for the match with Cojanu tallying a 10-7 win. The victory evened Cojanu record in three-set matches at 3-3.

Sophomore Alex Zuck put up a fight at the No. 5 spot as well. He rallied from a one-set deficit to force a decisive third set. Zuck dropped the opening set, 6-1, to Steven Forman, before taking the second in a tiebreaker. Forman claimed the match with a 10-4 win in the third set super tiebreaker.

The Tribe will travel to Athens, Ga., to meet No.1 Georgia on Sunday, Feb. 4. The match is slated for 1 p.m. The Tribe will return to the friendly confines of the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. W&M will host a trio of matches, Feb. 9-11. The College will host Michigan on Feb. 9 at 5 p.m., followed by a pair of matches on Feb. 11. The Tribe will bat-tle Michigan State at 10 a.m. on Feb. 11 with a 5 p.m. match against James Madison.

#26 Wake Forest 6, William and Mary 1
Singles
No. 1 - #4 Todd Paul (WF) def. Colin O'Brien (W&M) – 6-4, 6-3
No. 2 - #49 Alex Cojanu (W&M) def. Andrew Hamar (WF) – 6-7, 7-6, 10-7
No. 3 - Cory Parr (WF) def. Marwan Ramadan (W&M) – 6-2, 6-2
No. 4 - Mariusz Adamski (WF) def. Keziel Juneau (W&M) – 7-6, 6-4
No. 5 - Steven Forman (WF) def. Alex Zuck (W&M) – 6-1, 6-7, 10-4
No. 6 - Jason Morgenstern (WF) def. Kavi Sud (W&M) – 6-1, 6-0

Doubles
No. 1 - Paul/Adamski (WF) def. #30 O'Brien/Cojanu (W&M) – 8-5
No. 2 - Parr/Charles Sartor (WF) def. Ramadan/Richard Wardell (W&M) – 8-2
No. 3 - Hamar/Forman (WF) def. Sud/Juneau (W&M) – 8-7