PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—In its final tune-up before the BIG EAST Championships later this week, Villanova (9-10) captured the doubles point and won the No. 2 singles match in a 4-2 loss to Drexel (2-5) at the Vidas Courts on Tuesday afternoon. Freshman
Josh Robinson (Potomac, Md.) tallied his 10
th win of the year in singles play and was also part of the Wildcats rally to win the doubles point earlier in the match.
The host Dragons won the first doubles match to be completed as the freshman tandem of
Eitan Khromchenko (Manalapan, N.J.) and
Noah Winton (Columbia, Mo.) were defeated 6-2 in the No. 3 doubles match. Villanova won each of the top two doubles matches however, with Robinson and junior
Matthew Jones (Dallas, Texas) improving to 12-5 on the year with a 6-4 win in the No. 2 spot over Youssef Lahlou and Gustav Wogen.
It ultimately took a tiebreaker for the doubles point to be decided, with sophomore
Alex Kim (Cary, N.C.) and senior
Daniel Martinez (Coral Gables, Fla.) coming up with a big win at No. 1 doubles to clinch the team point. They outlasted Sanil Jagtiani and Djordje Janackovic for a 7-6 (8-6) victory which gave the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead in the match.
Robinson won his No. 2 singles match over Lahlou by set scores of 6-2 and 6-3 to extend the Villanova lead to 2-0 before Drexel tallied four consecutive wins to clinch the outcome. The competition was generally close in each match, including at No. 6 singles where freshman
Ryan Nguyen (Oakton, Va.) rallied to tie the match before falling to Matvey Radionov in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 decision. Sophomore
Daniel Cheng (Los Angeles, Calif.) extended Hugo Brungs to a second-set tiebreaker at No. 4 singles despite being defeated in a 6-0, 7-6 (6) outcome.
The other wins for the Dragons came at No. 1 singles where Alvaro Cruz Chamorro defeated Kim (6-3, 6-3) and No. 5 singles where Janackovic was a 6-1, 6-2 winner over freshman
Anthony Prokurat (Manalapan, N.J.). One other singles competition was tied when the match ended. Khromchenko was facing Wogen in the No. 3 spot in the lineup and had tied the match by winning the second set. The match wound up in a 7-6, 3-6 draw.
Villanova drew the No. 6 seed in the BIG EAST Championships and will face No. 3 Marquette in a quarterfinal match on Friday at 9 a.m. in Cayce, S.C.
