HOLLAND, Mich. – Freshman Sammy Yin picked up an individual victory to the lead the delegation from Trine University men's tennis at the 2023 Hope College Invite this past weekend. Eight members of the team competed in the event both in singles and doubles.
Yin headlined the group by winning the Men's A Draw Singles bracket outright. After an opening round bye, he won his first match 8-1 to move into the quarterfinals. There he won 6-2, 6-2 to move to the semifinals where he won 6-4, 6-0. In the championship match he took the first set 6-4 and then went up 3-0 before his opponent retired from the match due to injury.
Junior Cole Goodman also had success in in the A Draw winning his first two matches to reach the quarterfinals as well. He won his opening round contest 8-4 and his second contest 8-7 (7-2). He battled in the quarterfinals but ended up losing in a super tiebreaker with scores of 6-1, 4-6, 3-10. Sophomore Andrew Spirrison also competed in the top draw.
In the B Draw all three members of Trine won their opening matches before being eliminated in their second. Competing for the team were Caleb Morris, Drew Dixon and Elijah Schilthuis.
Sophomore Nicholas Jen highlighted the group in the C Draw. After dropping his opening round match, he won three straight to capture the consolation bracket championship. He won his final match 8-7 (7-5). Evan Nay also competed in the C Draw and won his first match before dropping a closely fought second with scores of 5-7, 4-6.
The eight student-athletes paired for the doubles portion of the event. Yin and Spirrison won their first match in the A Draw before being eliminated in a highly contested second match, 7-8 (5-7). Goodman and Dixon also won their first, 8-2, before dropping their second match 5-8.
In the B Draw, Schilthuis and Morris responded to an opening loss with an 8-4 win before falling in a tightly contested third match 7-8 (3-7). Jen and Nay won their first match in a long tiebreaker 8-7 (13-11) and then won their second match 8-4 before being eliminated.
The Thunder return to dual match play on Sunday, September 24. They are set to host the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology at noon.
