Lehighsports.com

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Senior co-captain Ryan Lloyd won the second singles title to guide Lehigh to a second place finish in the ECAC Men’s Open South Championships, hosted by the Mountain Hawks, Saturday at the Ulrich Varsity Courts. Lehigh placed players in the finals in all five contested flights in the five-team event that was shortened to just one day, but the Mountain Hawks dropped four finals matches to players from Colgate, as the Raiders edged the Brown and White for the team title 20-17.

“We came in a little shorthanded with a couple guys out,” said Lehigh head coach Dave Shook. “We had to turn to a couple of our younger guys against a full strength Colgate team, but overall our less experienced guys stepped up and did some good things to help us out.”

The Mountain Hawks were missing two returning starters: senior Brad Nelson and John Nespoli.

In second singles, Lloyd opened play with a straight set win over Matt McDaniel of Loyola before outlasting Martin McIntyre of Colgate in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the finals.

At the top flight, senior Alfredo Fernandez-Concha cruised into the finals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sean Wall of Loyola. In the finals, Fernandez-Concha took the first set from Chris Innes 7-5, but the Raider bounced back to win the following two sets by 6-4 scores.

With Lehigh’s juggled lineup sophomore Andrew Balshi played third singles, defeating Tim Koch of Loyola before losing to Marshall Wheeler of Colgate 7-5, 6-1 in the finals. Junior Brent Herbert played fourth singles, shutting out Andrew Brandstetter of Cabrini 6-0, 6-0 to reach the finals, where he lost to John Nogueras of Colgate in straight sets.

Lehigh’s doubles team consisted of senior Evan Volkman and sophomore Jon-Michael Caminiti. The duo ousted a team from Moravian 6-0 6-3 in the semis, then were done in by Colgate’s Michael Yasskey and Tyler Deck 6-2, 6-2.

The Mountain Hawks will return to the courts on Saturday October 14, when they host the Lehigh Tennis Invitational at the Lewis Tennis Center.