Tennis team competes well despite loss to Huskies

Jason Gulley/Exponent Photographer SMASHING: Laith Al-Agba drives a shot during his No. 2 doubles match Friday against Ball State. The senior won all four matches he played in this weekend.

By Andrew Hershberger
Assistant Sports Editor

Against No. 17 Washington on Sunday, the 49th-ranked men's tennis team in the nation had much to be proud of regardless of the 5-2 loss.

One player in particular, senior Laith Al-Agba, had something extra motivating him.

"I had a little more incentive 'cause I'm from Seattle," Al-Agba said. "I grew up watching Husky football and Washington was my favorite college growing up. When I was choosing colleges to go to for tennis, it was between Purdue and Washington."

So when Al-Agba took the court to face his second favorite team, coached by his coach at Olympia High School, he was already riding a two-match winning streak from Friday's 6-1 win over Ball State.

"I feed off the energy of everyone when I play," Al-Agba said. "There are just things I can feel; when I felt like we could win the match, I could tell their coach was getting nervous. I think he knew that if a couple points went our way, we would have beaten them, so it was very close."

After winning all three doubles matches to take the point, Purdue took the singles courts and put the Huskies through some tough matches. Four of six matches went to a third set.

"We won the doubles point and halfway through the match, we thought we were going to beat them," junior Scott Mayer said. "Just a couple points could have gone our way and we would have won, it was real close."

Mayer's match at No. 1 singles went to three sets, where Mayer fell 1-6, 6-3, 1-6. In the previous match against Ball State Mayer got the win in straight sets.

Junior Andrew Wakefield also lost his three set match at No. 3 singles after a win against the Cardinals, as did freshman Sounak Chatterjee at No. 6. Al-Agba was the only singles player to garner a win both days, defeating Kevin Burnett Friday and Ari Strasberg Sunday at No. 4, taking his record to 3-2 in singles.

Still, the team was ready to play and came away feeling well.

"I think we came out with a lot of energy; we were ready to play well and I think we did," Al-Agba said.

"We competed so well, one through six, every match in singles," Mayer said. "That’s what we need to do to compete and that's what we did this weekend."

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Sports editor: Jason Tomcsi

Assistant sports editor:
Andrew Hershberger

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