Men’s Tennis Takes Sixth Straight; Coasts Past Catholic, 8-1

Results

TOWSON, Md. - First-year Tetsuya Ota (Winter Park, Fla.), senior Jack Hodges (London, England) and junior Josiah Meekins (Trenton, N.J.) were all two-time winners for the day, as the Goucher College men's tennis team rolled past visiting Catholic, 8-1, on Wednesday in Landmark Conference action.

With the win - which was the Gophers' sixth straight overall - Goucher improved to 18-3 overall for the year and remained perfect in the Landmark Conference with a 5-0 mark. Catholic fell to 3-11 and 0-5 in the Landmark with the loss.

The big day for Goucher - who continues to be ranked 17th in the Oracle/ITA Regional Rankings - began in doubles, where the Gophers captured two of the three matches contested on the afternoon to go up, 2-1, entering singles.

First, at number one, the tandem of Ota and Hodges continued their solid play in Landmark Conference play with an 8-2 win. Ota and Hodges are now 11-8 overall on the year in the top spot of the lineup, and 4-1 in Landmark Conference play.

Goucher's other win came at number two doubles, where Meekins and sophomore partner Frankie Mullinix (Washington, D.C.) coasted to an 8-3 win.

After dropping the final match in doubles, Goucher bounced back in singles, taking all six matches contested.

In the top spot, Ota rolled to a 6-1, 6-2 win, while at number two, Hodges was also a straight-set victor (6-2, 6-0). Sophomore Michael Herman (Prague, Czech Republic) blanked his opponent in the number three spot (6-0, 6-0), while at number four, sophomore Slade Dumas (Great Falls, Va.) was a straight set 6-1, 6-2 victor.

Rounding out the lineup junior Elliot Diehl (York, Pa.) also won in straight sets at number five (6-3, 7-6 (7-4), while in the sixth spot, Meekins completed the singles sweep with a 6-2, 6-1 win.

Of note, Hodges has now won 58 matches in both singles and doubles for his career at Goucher entering this weekend. Hodges finds himself just one doubles victory away from matching Seth Hoesman's school record for total career doubles victories (59).

A busy weekend for the Goucher men's tennis team begins at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, as the Gophers host Elizabethtown in a Landmark Conference match. Later on the day, Johns Hopkins will visit Goucher in a non-conference match, which will begin at 4 p.m.

--GOPHERS--