Tennis Dominates Otterbein
BY IAN HAYNES

“Tennis is like shooting a foul shot in basketball. You are required to remain focused on every point,” Head Coach Don Hunsinger said.
The Oberlin College men’s and women’s tennis teams never lost their focus last Saturday, as they both had dominating wins over visiting Otterbein College. The men won 5-2, improving their record to 3-0, while the women stayed unbeaten, winning 6-3.
Saturday’s match opened with men’s doubles play. First-year Jamie Frankel teamed up with senior Ben Fox to capture an 8-4 win in first doubles for the Yeomen. Needing only one more win in doubles to get a team point, senior Mike Shelton and sophomore Jay Criscione teamed up, allowing the Yeomen to rout Otterbein’s second doubles team, 8-3. With the point already taken, Oberlin’s third doubles team, consisting of first-year Marian Bocek and sophomore Ashvin Raj, made it a clean sweep for the Yeomen, winning 8-4. “The guys had a 180-degree turnaround from the week before. It was like a different group of guys out there playing with the intensity and focus that they were missing [against Malone],” Hunsinger said.
With one point already in hand, Frankel got set to take on his first singles opponent, Marc Thomas. Frankel won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1 and exhibited the mental tenacity it takes to bury an opponent for the win.

After losing the first set 0-6, Fox came back in the second set, taking it 6-3 and forcing a third set. Fox came up just short, though, losing the set 4-6 and giving Otterbein their first point of the match.
Soon after, however, Shelton wiped his opponent in third singles, winning in straight sets, 6-0, 6-4. Criscione, on the other hand, faltered a bit in the first set of fourth singles, losing 0-6. He battled back though, taking the next two sets 6-3, 6-4 and giving the Yeomen their fourth point of the match.
“[Criscione] after getting beat 6-0 in the first match really came back and played well,” Hunsinger said.
In fifth singles, Bocek won in straight sets 7-6 (3), 6-4 for Oberlin’s fifth and final point.
Playing sixth singles for Oberlin was Raj, who lost in straight sets 6-7 (5), 3-6.
“We came out really well as a team [against Otterbein],” Frankel said, “We stuck to the game plan and got a good win.”
“The team has a great stimulus which is a big plus for us,” Bocek said.
The Yeomen will travel to Indiana to take on Wabash on Sunday. They will be making the trip without Fox and Criscione. Criscione is out with an injured shoulder and probably will not play in the upcoming matches. Filling in for the Yeomen will be sophomores Matt Isaacs and Matt Fairbanks.
“We have a good team chemistry,” Frankel said. Bocek added that the team is compact and that the players have good relationships with each other.
For the women, Otterbein proved to be a strong team from top to bottom.
“This is a much improved team from when we played them last year. The girl I played last year at second singles wasn’t even in the top six this year,” sophomore Alaina Fotiu-Wojtowicz said.
Junior Sarah Jesse teamed up with Fotiu-Wojtowicz to play first doubles and capture the Yeowomen’s first point of the match, as they won 8-2.
In second doubles, senior Beth Krupski and first-year Becka Burma defeated Otterbein’s second doubles team 8-3, giving Oberlin an early 2-0 lead.

Sophomore Laura Koehn and junior Lindsay Butler lost 9-7 in third doubles, making the score 2-1 in favor of Oberlin as the teams headed into singles play.
Playing first singles, Jesse did what she has done every other time on the court this year. She swept her opponent in straight sets 6-0, 6-0.
Fotiu-Wojtowicz also won in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, putting Oberlin within one point of wrapping up the match.
Krupski shut down her opponent 6-0, 6-1 for the fifth point of the match and an Oberlin victory.
Burma looked to follow the trend set by the first three singles players and took the first set of her match, 6-1. She fell behind in the second set 3-5, though, before her opponent was forced to quit with an injury.

“This match proved to be a good competitive match for our middle singles players,” Jesse said.
Koehn stepped into the fifth singles spot and took the first set 6-4 before losing consecutive sets 3-6 and 4-6 to her opponent. “[Koehn] played really well. It was just a couple of shots here and there. If they fell different, she wins the match,” Hunsinger said.

After competing in third doubles, Butler filled in for the sixth singles spot. This was her first match this year after being away for the first semester, and lost in straight sets, 1-6, 0-6.
The Yeowomen will travel to Michigan to take on Hope College this weekend.
“The Hope match will be a good indicator for the rest of the season,” Jesse said.
“Our depth is our best strength as a team. We are good from top to bottom and have a good chance at winning this weekend,” Fotiu-Wojtowicz said, “A win would be a definite confidence boost for us.”

Hope is currently ranked 12th in the Midwest region, and is consistently a tough team year in and year out. “The key to our success is in the play of our third, fourth and fifth singles players, and our second doubles. They are critical as to how we do against Hope,” Hunsinger said.
“Our doubles teams need to step it up this weekend. Winning doubles is three points. Our singles are playing well, but we just need to keep it up,” Jesse said.