Forecast Forces Gophers, Greyhounds to Take Match Indoors

Hoesman Tops Tuorto in Battle of Freshmen at No. 1 Singles

BALTIMORE, Md. — Even after suffering a pair of gut-wrenching losses during the doubles competition, Goucher bounced back and earned two points in singles play during tonight's 7-2 loss to Moravian at the Bare Hill Racquet & Fitness Club.

The first Landmark Conference match of the season was moved indoors due to the forecast for wet weather throughout the day.

In order to come out of doubles play up 3-0, the Greyhounds (2-4, 1-0 Landmark) had to prevail in two matches seemingly pitting evenly matched doubles pairings. The matches at No. 1 between Seth Hoesman (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) and John Bescoby (San Marino, Calif./Maranatha) from Goucher and Matt Tuorto and John Wylie from Moravian and at No. 2 between David Spivey (Cockeysville, Md./The Park School) and Pat Murnin (Salt Lake City, Utah/East) of the Gophers and Libario Obeid and Lewis Cooper of the Greyhounds both were tied at 7-7 after 14 sets and 8-8 following two additional sets.

In both cases, the Moravian duo captured the match by winning a tiebreaker: Tuorto and Wylie took the tiebreaker at No. 1, 7-5; Obeid and Cooper finished off their win at No. 2 by getting to seven points in the tiebreaker while Spivey and Murnin were stuck at four.

"Particularly for the Landmark Conference, that was a pretty high quality of tennis played in those two (doubles matches),: according to Brendan Kincaid, Goucher's first-year head coach. "It was disappointing not to win at least one of them, but from a viewing standpoint, they were both great matches."

Hoesman and Spivey both improved to 4-1 in singles play this season with straight-set wins at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. In a battle between two of the top freshmen in the conference, Hoesman knocked off Tuorto 6-3, 6-2, while Spivey bested Wylie 7-5, 6-3.

The Gophers (1-4, 0-1 Landmark) were unable to win a set in any of the remaining four singles matches.