Tribe Battles Back to Defeat No. 39 MTSU

Freshman Keziel Juneau fought off 11 match points in the decisive contest at the No. 3 singles position.

03/23/07 11:00PM

Houston, Texas - On the strength of a come-from-behind victory from freshman Keziel Juneau, the No. 33 William and Mary men’s tennis team won its third straight match over a ranked foe, downing No. 39 Middle Tennessee State, 4-3, in the first match of the 46th Annual Rice Invitational. The Tribe needed a quartet of singles victories to knock off the Blue Raiders for the second time in a week. W&M has won 12 of its last 14 matches and improved to 14-7 overall on the season.

“I am proud of the way this team battled with its back against the wall,” head coach Peter Daub said. “We fought off a seven team match points, meaning that if we did not win the point, we would lose the entire match. We lost the doubles point and were down 3-1. We needed to win all three matches on the court, and we did just that. This was a great team effort. The best thing about this team is that someone different steps up every time we have needed it. We have a group of individuals that seize the opportunity when it is presented to them.”

With the match even at three following a three-set victory from sophomore Alex Zuck at the No. 4 position, the heated affair came down to a battle at the No. 3 slot between Juneau and No. 113-ranked Marco Born. Born won the opening set in a tiebreaker, before Juneau battled back to even the contest in the second, 7-5. The Repentigny, Quebec
native fought off 11 match points to claim the victory in a third-set tiebreak thriller, 7-6 (9). The victory not only clinched the match for the Tribe, but was the first victory over a ranked opponent in Juneau’s career.

Middle Tennessee claimed the opening point of the match taking the top two doubles positions. The doubles started off positively for the Tribe as Zuck and junior Kavi Sud notched an 8-3 win over Joao Pailiello and Marc Boiron at the No. 3 slot. The Blue Raiders rallied to take the No. 1 and No. 2 spots by identical 8-6 scores.

After MTSU extended the lead to 2-0 with a win at the No. 6 singles position, sophomore Marwan Ramadan tallied the first W&M point of the match with a straight sets win at the No. 5 position. He disposed of Alex McCann, 6-2, 6-4, for his 16th win of the season.

The Blue Raiders once again extended its lead with a three-set victory at the No. 1 position. O’Brien, ranked No. 99 nationally for the Tribe, fought back to even the top spot at a set apiece with a 6-2 win in the second, but could not overcome No. 69-ranked Andreas Siljestrom, who took the third set, 6-1. Junior Alex Cojanu wasted little time drawing the Tribe back within one at 3-2. The Hallandale, Fla., native won in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6 (8), over Marc Rocafort at the No. 2 position.

The match came down to three-set affairs at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions. Zuck remained perfect at the No. 4 position for the Tribe, upping his dual-match record to 14-4. The Toms River, N.J., native evened the contest at three with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Morgan Richard, setting up the final dramatics from Juneau.

The Tribe will continue action at the 46th Annual Rice Invitational, facing the host and No. 24-ranked Owls at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 24. W&M will close out the event against No. 50 Oklahoma on Sunday, March 25, at 10 a.m.

Match Notes
The Tribe’s match with Middle Tennessee State was a marathon, lasting four hours and 20 minutes ... W&M has won 12 of its last 14 matches, including seven of its last nine against ranked opponents ... The Tribe is 7-7 this season against ranked competition ... It marked the second time in a week that W&M defeated MTSU, after claiming a 4-2 decision at the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic on March 17 ... The Tribe is currently ranked No. 33, which is the highest for the program since the advent of the current computerized ranking system in 2000 ... Juneau became the first W&M player to tally 20 wins this season improving to 20-15 overall and 10-2 at the No. 3 singles position ... He fought of 11 match points to claim his first win over a ranked opponent ... Juneau has won 12 of his last 13 contests .... Zuck improved to 19-9 overall, 14-4 in dual matches and 7-0 at the No. 4 position ... He has won 13 of his last 14 singles matches ... Cojanu improved to 14-11 in singles this season with a win at the No. 2 slot ... Ramadan won his 10th dual match of the season against MTSU, improving to 16-11 overall ... Zuck and Sud improved to 2-1 with their second straight win at the No. 3 doubles slot.

#33 William & Mary 4, #39 Middle Tennessee State 3
Singles
No. 1 - #69 Andreas Siljestrom (MTSU) def. #99 Colin O'Brien (W&M) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1
No. 2 - Alex Cojanu (W&M) def. Marc Rocafort (MTSU) 6-4, 7-6 (8)
No. 3 - Keziel Juneau (W&M) def. #113 Marco Born (MTSU) 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (9)
No. 4 - Alex Zuck (W&M) def. Morgan Richard (MTSU) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
No. 5 - Marwan Ramadan (W&M) def. Alex McCann (MTSU) 6-2, 6-4
No. 6 - Joao Pailiello (MTSU) def. Richard Wardell (W&M) 6-1, 6-2
Finishing Order: 6,5,1,2,4,3*

Doubles
No. 1 - #4 Born/Siljestrom (MTSU) def. #39 Cojanu/Juneau (W&M) 8-6
No. 2 - Richard/Rocafort (MTSU) def. O'Brien/Wardell (W&M) 8-6
No. 3 - Zuck/Sud (WM) def. Pailiello/Boiron (MTSU) 8-3
Finishing Order: 3, 2, 1*