Western Wayne Today

The Wayne State University men's tennis team, ranked No. 18, narrowly missed a comeback victory against No. 25 Ferris State in the GLIAC Tournament Championship on Sunday afternoon. The match ended with a close 4-3 loss at the Greater Midland Tennis Center.

Wayne State entered the tournament as the second seed after finishing behind Ferris State in the regular season standings. The final score mirrored their previous encounter on April 14 in Detroit.

Seeking a third consecutive GLIAC Tournament Championship, Wayne State had previously defeated No. 37 Grand Valley State 4-2 in the semifinals on Saturday, having won titles in both 2022 and 2023.

In doubles play, Ferris State secured the point by winning two out of three matches. Wayne State's top duo, Cedric Drenth and Daniel Grey from Germany, claimed victory at the No. 1 position against Jan Koupil and Benjamin Lortie with a score of 6-4. However, Luke Laws and Dom Spicer lost their match at the second flight, while Joe Steele and Emil Mikkelsen were defeated at the No. 3 spot.

In singles competition, both teams won three matches each. However, Ferris State took an early lead by winning the first two completed contests to go up 3-0 overall. Grey lost to Esunge Ndumbe at the first flight, while Benjamin Hill was defeated by Alessandro Santangelo at No. 5 position.

Despite being down 3-0, Wayne State rallied to tie it up at 3-3 with victories from Drenth over Yannic-Alexander Mader and Spicer over Lortie in three sets each. Mikkelsen also won his match against Kevin Kovacs in three sets.

The deciding match came down to Koupil versus Denali Kitayama at No. 4 position. Kitayama managed to push it to a third set but ultimately fell short with a final set score of 7-5.

Looking ahead, Wayne State awaits its placement within the NCAA Midwest Regional during the NCAA Selection Show scheduled for Monday, May 6th.