WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Top-seeded Wake Forest (31-3) won a close doubles point on its way to registering a 4-0 victory over the Navy men's tennis team (21-18), Friday evening in an NCAA Tournament first-round match played in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Demon Deacons won the 2025 national title and are ranked fourth nationally this season.
"We had some daylight in doubles," said Navy head coach
Chris Garner, who earlier in the day earned his seventh Patriot League Coach-of-the-Year honor. "When you don't take advantage of it, things can go dark pretty quickly. Unfortunately that's what happened."
The best match of the three was the one left unfinished as the Wake Forest tandem of Andrew Delgado and DK Suresh Ekambaram, the nation's top-ranked doubles team, was tied with
Herrick Legaspi and
Charlie Spencer at 5-5 at the No. 1 flight when it was stopped due to the other matches finishing.
The first match to finish was at No. 3 where Wake Forest's Luca Pow and Charlie Robertson defeated
Ethan Garcia and
Jason Kim by the score of 6-2. Wake Forest secured the point when its No. 2 team of Mees Rottgering and Kacper Szymkowiak outlasted
Lachlan Buckingham and
Jake Young by the score of 6-3. The Demon Deacons held a 5-2 lead in the match when the Mids broke their serve to make it a 5-3 score. The ensuing game with Navy serving reached the deuce point that had it gone to the Mids the score would have been 5-4.
The Wake Forest singles lineup featured four nationally-ranked players, but only one of those four completed a match.
The Demon Deacons took a 2-0 lead when Dominick Mosejczuk defeated
Steve Nguyen 6-2, 6-0 at No. 6 singles. Joaquin Guilleme made the score 3-0 with his 6-1, 6-3 victory over
J.J. Etterbeek at the No. 5 flight. The match ended when No. 125 Aryan Shah posted a 6-2, 6-2 win over
Tommy Kim at No. 4 singles.
The left three matches still in progress.
Suresh Ekambaram, who is ranked 27th nationally, led Legaspi 6-3, 3-2 at No. 1, No. 38 Rottgering held a 6-4, 4-1 advantage on
Aniketh Ayinala at No. 2 while Spencer and No. 28 Pow were tied 6-6 in the first set at No. 3.
"In singles," said Garner, "it is just a totally different level when you are playing players at that level who are not only steady but can hurt you in a rally."
The match closes the season for Navy and the careers of Ayinala, Etterbeek and Legaspi.
"Our guys had a terrific season led by our three seniors," said Garner. "J.J. had won eight singles matches in a row and 12-straight matches between singles and doubles before his loss today. Aniketh had his best season on the court this season. Herrick showed up in our biggest matches this year, which was fantastic to see.
"While their tennis highlights were many over the course of their four years, it is what they brought outside of scores and statistics that means the most to me, everyone on the team and our program. We are looking forward to following their next chapter."
