Paul earns 100th career victory as Men's Tennis edges Wooster 5-4

Ryan Paul

By Patrick Massara

| Box Score |

ADA – Senior Ryan Paul became the 14th member of the 100-win club as the Ohio Northern men’s tennis defeated the College of Wooster 5-4 at University Courts Thursday afternoon.

The Polar Bears better their record to 4-4 overall while the Fighting Scots fall to 8-2 overall this season.

In the schools’ fifteenth meeting, this was Ohio Northern’s first win in the series.

With the match tied at 4-4 between the schools, it came down to number one singles play between Paul and CW senior Pat Grab.

Down 5-3 in the third set and facing elimination, Paul reached back and fought through the next four sets to defeat Grab 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 for a memorable one-hundredth victory and historic victory for ONU as a team.

“It feels great,” Paul said. “(Grab) came out on fire, but I kept battling. Although I was down 4-3, I just knew that I was going to win it. It feels good to join the 100-win club because it has not been easy. It’s a goal I’ve had since my freshman year and now I have joined my past teammates in this club.”

ONU started off this afternoon strong by taking two of the three doubles matches.

Senior Chris Dohner and sophomore Jeff Carter defeated Matt Hoch and Jeremy Dominik 8-4 at number two doubles.

Jay Vaidya and Matt Dutro gave ONU its second point by taking number three doubles 8-5 over Chris Collen and Brad Palanski.

Freshman Nick Kowalczyk picked up a victory in number two singles by defeating Dominik 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

Carter picked up his second win of the day by winning number four singles 6-3, 6-3 over Steve Conroy.

Ohio Northern heads to Indiana this weekend to take part in the Wabash Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.