Franciscan 5, Capital 4

Ashland, Ohio - The Franciscan Men's Tennis team got to open their spring schedule at home today thanks to the warmest day of the year thus far with highs touching the lower 70s. 

Doubles
    Franciscan struggled in doubles play today. Billy Presume and Leo Morella took their match fairly quickly, and grabbed the Barons first team point of the day. The #1 and #2 doubles pairings were unable to beat their Capital opponents, and after doubles play Franciscan was losing 2-1.

Singles
    Singles play started off with three quick team points for Franciscan. The #5, #2, and #6 hitters for Franciscan had decisive victories. Aidan Palladino, Travis Mistry, and Leo Morella put the Barons in a commanding lead. At this point in the match, the score was 4-2 Franciscan. These three quick team points put a lot of pressure on the Capital players. Franciscan only needed one more point to clinch the team victory. A short while later, Franciscan's #4 hitter, Josh Robbins, lost to the Capital's Welch. The top pairing was an intense back-and-forth. Gary Pierre lost his first set 7-5. In the second set almost every point went to deuce. Each game in this match was tightly contested. The emotion was visible from the Capital hitter, as he quite often threw his racket or hit a ball out in frustration. Gary held his composure and forced a tiebreak in the second set. Unfortunately, Gary found trouble during the tie break. He was winning 3-2, but had two double faults and a missed shot that landed on another court. This put him in a 6-3 hole, and was too much to overcome from a talented opponent. The score was now 4-4, and everything would come down to Billy Presume. Billy lost his first set, but forced a tie break in the second set. He won the tie break and the #3 pairings went into a third set. Billy's strong shot and excellent conditioning came through. He was able to quickly take the third set 6-2. This gave the Barons their 5th team point and winning the match.

Who's Next? 
The Barons will head south for Florida next weekend, as they take their annual spring break trip to the Sunshine State. They will play five matches down there starting on Monday April 14th with a doubleheader against Hamline and Saint Francis (Ind.). This will be their first matchup all-time against Hamline, but they did play Saint Francis (Ind.) in MArch of 2020, the last time the Barons were in Florida. The Barons fell to the Cougars by a score of 4-5. Billy Presume secured two points for the Barons that day with a #3 singles win and a #1 doubles win along side Gary Pierre.  Read Full Article