PHILADELPHIA – The No. 73-ranked University of Denver men's tennis team (8-5, 0-0 Summit) dropped a 6-1 match at No. 40-ranked Penn on Sunday afternoon.
 
Denver won the doubles point for the third match in a row to take a 1-0 lead early, but the host team rallied back with wins in all six singles matches – though Denver put up a fight with two going to third sets and many of the sets remining competitive.
 
Doubles:
DU's top two doubles teams fought back after Penn won the No. 3 match, answering with back-to-back wins within a couple minutes of each other to give the dual's first point to the Pioneers.
 
The comeback started at the No. 2 court with senior Ryoma Mishiro and sophomore Samuel Rovai winning four consecutive games in the core of their match to lead, 5-2. Penn's team of Butera/Chung were able to get one break back, but the two Pioneers refocused to hold at love in the 10^th and final game.
 
About two minutes later, the No. 1 Denver team of graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox and sophomore Theo Coats clinched the doubles point. The set began with relatively straight-forward holds for both team before Coats/Robb-Wilcox won three games in a row to go ahead, 5-3. A hold from Penn's Graziani/Vales forced the DU duo to serve it out, which they did at love. The result extended Coats/Robb-Wilcox's win streak to six.
 
Singles:
Penn evened up the score with a straight-sets win at No. 4 singles and earned it first lead after taking the No. 2 match. The No. 1 singles match was ultimately decided by late breaks for Penn in both sets. Rovai and Penn's Manfredi Graziani held serve in each of their first four service games before the match's first break gave Graziani a 5-4 lead, which he consolidated to win the first set. Rovai responded with taking a 3-0 lead in the second and stretched it to 5-3, but Graziani drew back level before getting his first lead of the set for 6-5 and served it out.
 
The home team clinched the dual at No. 6 singles, sneaking past freshman Aaron Beduhn with a first-set tiebreak after Beduhn held a break lead early. The two players traded breaks to start the second set but in a similar manner as the No. 1 match, Penn's Vojech Vales got a critical break to go up, 6-5, and was able to serve it out in the next game.
 
The day's final two matches all went to deciding sets. Coats claimed a set lead at No. 4 singles, but Penn's Shaurya Bharadwaj answered with back-to-back 6-2 sets to win it. At No. 5 singles, Robb-Wilcox began a comeback after dropping the first set. He broke twice in the second frame to win it, 6-2, and forced a third set, where he fought back from an early set down but did not have enough time to draw level, seeing Penn's Matthew Rutter seal it, 6-4.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team continues its six-match road trip when it heads west to play at Cal Poly and Gonzaga on March 23 and 25, respectively.