Mountain Hawks welcome three league rivals in fall finale
Posted: 10/25/2012
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh men’s tennis team will be hosting the Lehigh Fall Invitational beginning Friday at 3:30 p.m. The three-day event continues through Sunday with matches taking place on the Ulrich Varsity Courts and inside the Lewis Tennis Center. Lehigh welcomes Patriot League foes Army, Colgate and Lafayette for its final event of the fall season.
The Mountain Hawks will open up with singles matches against Colgate on Friday followed by doubles contests against the Raiders on Saturday. There will be no official team scoring, but like the first Lehigh Invitational held two weeks ago all matchups will consist of six to eight singles matches and three or four doubles matches.
Sophomores Ben Gilman and Mitchell Peterson competed in the USTA/ITA Northeast Regional Championships at Yale’s Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center last weekend. Gillman delivered the Mountain Hawks first-ever ITA win in the championship bracket on Friday, defeating Charlie Carrera of St. Peter’s 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. Gilman played another three set match on Saturday, but was ousted by Damien David of Buffalo 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.
Petersen dropped his opening match in straight sets to Rick Timmerman of Stony Brook, but rallied for an impressive win in the consolation singles bracket, prevailing in a third set ten point tiebreak to defeat Dan Hirschberg of Brown 2-6, 6-2, 10-8.
The Mountain Hawks are coming off a productive fall in which they enjoyed success in the previous Lehigh Invitational, which featured Loyola (Md.), Delaware, Saint Francis (Pa.) and Bucknell.
The Lehigh Invitational will conclude the Mountain Hawks’ fall schedule. The Mountain Hawks will return to the courts for the spring season beginning in late January.
Story by C.J. McCollum ‘13