Feb. 7, 2004

WILLIAMSBURG, VA. -- The Wake Forest men's tennis team narrowly escaped with a 4-3 victory over the College of William and Mary Saturday at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. The Demon Deacons are now 2-1 on the season while William and Mary falls to 2-4 overall.

The Tribe jumped out to a 1-0 lead by grabbing the doubles point in the early going. William and Mary's Geoff Russell and Sean Kelleher defeated Wake's Brett Ross and Andrew Simpson, 8-5 at No. 1 while the Deacs' Andrew Hamar and Todd Paul fell in a 9-7 match to Steven Kane and Jeff Kader at No. 2.

The Tribe continued its strong start in singles play as Stephen Ward had no trouble with Wake Forest's David Loewenthal in the No. 5 slot, 6-0, 6-1. But trailing 2-0, the Demon Deacons were able to rattle off four consecutive singles victories to clinch the match.

Ross dropped the opening set to Russell, but rallied for a 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 win in the No. 4 position. Paul and Hamar came through with straight set victories and Derrick Spice capped off the Wake Forest victory with an impressive 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Kader, the nation's 26th ranked singles player.

Wake Forest was originally scheduled to take on Old Dominon in Norfolk, Va. on Sunday, but that match has been postponed due to a scheduling conflict and will take place in Winston-Salem on Feb. 18 at 3 p.m. The Deacons will travel to Minneapolis, Minn. where they will take on the University of Minnesota next Friday and Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday.

#33 Wake Forest 4, #41 William and Mary 3

Singles
1. Derrick Spice (WF) d. #26 Jeff Kader; 6-3, 6-3
2. #76 Andrew Hamar (WF) d. Steven Kane; 6-4, 6-3
3. Todd Paul (WF) d. Sean Kelleher; 6-0, 6-4
4. Brett Ross (WF) d. Geoff Russell; 1-6, 6-1, 6-3
5. Stephen Ward (W&M) d. David Loewenthal; 6-0, 6-1
6. Alex Fish (W&M) d. Liron Strauss; 6-1, 1-6, 6-3

Doubles
1. Kelleher/Russell (W&M) d. Ross/Simpson; 8-5
2. Kader/Kane (W&M) d. Hamar/Paul; 9-7
3. Bates/Simpson (WF) d. Ward/Fish; 9-8