Ferris State Tennis Teams Earn League Road Split At Rival Northwood In Friday Action

Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University men's and women's tennis squads resumed Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) action on Friday (April 15), battling longtime tennis rival Northwood to a conference road split in Midland.

The nationally 19th-ranked Bulldog men's squad stayed perfect in the GLIAC standings with a 4-3 triumph over the Timberwolves at the Midland Tennis Center while NU responded for a 7-0 win over FSU on the women's side.

"The men's team played well, but kudos to Northwood for bringing their A game today against us," said head coach Mark Doren. "They made us fight for every point. It was a good win against a rival heading into a big match for the GLIAC regular season title tomorrow.

"The women didn't play bad, but we just struggled on some big points and ran out of gas in a couple of third sets," he added. "But, I was very happy with how hard we fought after four of them had to take a week off to nurse some injuries."

Ferris State won its eighth consecutive match this year in the men's contest while moving to 15-2 overall and 6-0 atop the GLIAC. The loss dropped Northwood to 8-11 overall and 3-2 in the conference.

FSU swept the three doubles flights to grab the initial point of the match and then proceeded to split the six singles positions, getting wins from Yannic Alexander Mader at three singles, Benjamin Lortie at the fourth spot and Alessandro Santangelo at six singles. Four of the six singles flights went to third sets.

Meanwhile, in the women's tilt, the Bulldogs suffered only their second GLIAC setback to date, dropping to 9-6 overall and 4-2 in league play. The win helped Northwood climb to 13-5 overall and 6-0 in women's competition to date.

Ferris State earned a 7-6 (7-2) victory at two doubles from the combination of Morgan Waller and Sam Stephenson, but the Timberwolves claimed the point by wining the first and third flights. They then swept the singles round, but needed third set wins at four of the six positions to do so.

The Bulldogs will square off against Wayne State in another big league doubleheader on Saturday (April 16) in Detroit. The Warriors host FSU in women's action to start the afternoon at 2 p.m. (ET). Finally, the FSU men will face the nation's 11th-ranked Warriors in a battle of top 20 teams nationally beginning at 7 p.m. (ET).

Here are the complete boxscores below:

Men - FSU 4, Northwood 3
https://ferrisstate.prestosports.com/sports/mten/2021-22/files/NU-FS.xtg

Women - Northwood 7, FSU 0
https://ferrisstate.prestosports.com/sports/wten/2021-22/files/NU-FS.xtg