NORTON, Mass. -- Senior Ian Tracy (San Jose, Costa Rica) and junior Josh Anshuetz (West Bloomfield, Mich.) were both double-winners to lead the fourth-seeded Wheaton College (Mass.) men's tennis team to a 5-0 victory over visiting number five seed Clark University this afternoon in the Quarterfinals of the New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference Tournament at the Clark Tennis Courts on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass. The Lyons improve to 6-10 on the season, while the Cougars fall to 4-11.
Wheaton advances to play top-seeded United States Coast Guard Academy in the Semifinals on Saturday, April 30 at 10:30 a.m. at the Upper Roland Tennis Courts in New London, Conn.
The match was played to decision and was the home team's first playoff victory since defeating the same Clark Cougars in the 2019 tournament.
The Lyons swept all three doubles matches to give them a 3-0 lead heading into singles play and needing just two singles victories to win the match.
Junior Ethan Na (Weatogue, Conn.) combined with sophomore Elijah Hanlon (Branford, Conn.) to earn an 8-1 victory for the Lyons at number three doubles over the Clark duo of graduate student Holden Moore (Exeter, N.H.) and first year Adrian Ramirez (Arlington, Va.) to open the scoring and improve their record as a duo to 6-5. Tracy and Anshuetz teamed at first doubles to deliver an 8-6 win for Wheaton over the Cougars combo of junior Dariy Vykhodtsev (Saco, Maine) and sophomore Tanner Honnef (Camarillo, Calif.) to up their doubles mark to 7-3. The Lyons received their third point at number three doubles from the pairing of senior Albert Ortega Campos (Malaga, Spain) and Jack Luyrink (Paxton, Mass.) after turning in an 8-6 decision over senior Max Schweitzer and first year Aidan Hurtado for Clark and improve their doubles record to 4-3.
Tracy surrendered just one game in a 6-1, 6-0 effort at first singles over Vykhodtsev to give Wheaton a 4-0 lead and improve his singles mark to 11-6 on the season. Anshuetz clinched the dual match victory for the Lyons with a 6-0, 6-0 win at number two singles over Schweitzer to improve to 6-5 for the year.
