Southern Illinoise University Athletics
SIU Men's Tennis Defeats Vincennes
04/12/2001 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
March 21, 2001
The Southern Illinois University Carbondale men's tennis team rode a comeback performance by Tim Marsh to snap a four-match losing streak by beating national junior college powerhouse Vincennes University at home Wednesday 4-3.
Marsh spent the day behind in the match by 4-1 margins at No. 4 singles, but fought back three times from the brink of defeat to spark his Saluki teammates. Marsh teamed with Alon Savidor at No. 2 doubles to make it a perfect day winning 8-3.
"Tim never gave up and kept coming back," said SIU men's coach Missy Jeffrey. "He gave us the spark we needed to win this match and Vincennes is a very good tennis team. If he didn't win his match we would have lost since we needed three wins in singles for the victory. It takes some pressure off the top three players to be able to lose at No. 1 and still win the match with another player coming through for us."
The junior from Rolling Hills Estate, California dropped the first set 6-1 to Scott Colebourne and was down 4-1 in the second before catching fire and winning the final five games to take the set 6-4. He once again fell behind 4-1 in the third set before taking five of the last seven games to force a tie-breaker. For the third and final time he fell behind 4-1 in the tie-breaker, but caught his third wind and scored the match's final six points to take the match 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
For the Salukis, Savidor won at No. 2 singles, 7-5, 6-2 along with Peter Bong at No. 3, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3). The Dawgs also won No. 1 doubles with the team of Val Epure and Bong winning 8-3.
Former Carbondale Community High School tennis star Phillip Merrill returned to his hometown as a Trailblazer and had a good homecoming. He defeated Brian Blake at No. 6 singles, 6-3, 6-1, and teamed with Brian Slack at No. 3 doubles to defeat the team of Chris Carpenter and Blake, 8-4.
The Salukis upped their record to 2-4 in dual match play and will return to action Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25, when they take on Indiana State and Ball State at Terre Haute, Indiana.
