ORLANDO, Fla. -- No. 18 Washburn men's tennis ended its season in the NCAA Round of 16 with a 4-2 loss to No. 11 Wayne State (23-9) on Thursday afternoon. The Ichabods finish the season 17-8 and reached the NCAA National Championships for a fifth time in program history.
Washburn, the No. 12 seed in the re-seeded national tournament, got a strong start against the No. 5 seed Warriors in doubles. Miquel Perez and Sebastian Pjontek, ranked No. 7 nationally, knocked off the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, Cedric Drenth and Daniel Grey 6-3 from No. 1 to open the action.
No. 12 ranked Tim Hammes and Santiago Rendon won 6-3 at No. 2, clinching the doubles point for the Ichabods. Yoshinobu Nakatsuji and Daniel Bird led 5-3 at No. 3 when the point was decided.
Wayne State evened the score in singles with No. 68 Rendon falling 6-1 ,6-3 at No. 5. Playing at No. 4, Perez lost a pair of 6-4 sets, putting Wayne State ahead. On court one No. 15 Hammes lost a 7-6(3) tiebreaker in the first set to No. 24 Drenth and fell in the second set 6-1 to set up match point.
On No. 6 Daniel Harkin lost his opening set 6-3 but flipped the scored around in the second set to win 6-3. He continued that momentum into the third set, winning 6-0 to make it a 3-2 match.
At No. 4 Bird lost a tight opening set 7-5 to No. 69 Dom Spicer. He led early in the second set but Spicer was able to come back and take the lead late, winning 7-5 to clinch the match for the Warriors.
No. 37 Pjontek's match was left unfinished at No. 2. He won his opening set 6-4, lost the second in a 7-6(4) tiebreaker and was trailing 3-2 in the third set when the match was decided.
WASHBURN 2023 SEASON NOTES:
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Washburn won 17 matches and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for a third straight season
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It is only the sixth season in program history that Washburn has won at least 17 matches in a season
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The Ichabods won the 2023 MIAA/GAC Conference Tournament four the fourth time ever with a 4-0 win over Northwest Missouri State
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Seven players were represented on the MIAA/GAC all-conference teams
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Washburn finished in second place in the MIAA/GAC North regular season
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The Ichabods finished with a winning record at all six singles and all three doubles positions
Doubles competition:
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Perez, Miquel/Pjontek, Sebastian (WU) def. Drenth, Cedric/Grey, Daniel (WSU) 6-3
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Hammes, Tim/Rendon, Santiago (WU) def. Karcz, Niklas/Laws, Luke (WSU) 6-3
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Bird, Daniel/Nakatsuji, Yoshinobu (WU) vs Mikkelsen, Emil/Spicer, Dom (WSU) 5-3 UF
Order of finish: 1, 2
Singles competition:
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Drenth, Cedric (WSU) def. Hammes, Tim (WU) 7-6(3), 6-1
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Pjontek, Sebastian (WU) vs Grey, Daniel (WSU) 6-4, 6(4)-7, 2-3 UF
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Karcz, Niklas (WSU) def. Perez, Miquel (WU) 6-4, 6-4
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Spicer, Dom (WSU) def. Bird, Daniel (WU) 7-5, 7-5
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Kitayama, Denali (WSU) def. Rendon, Santiago (WU) 6-1, 6-3
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Harkin, Daniel (WU) def. Laws, Luke (WSU) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0
Order of finish: 5, 3, 1, 6, 4
