April 15, 2002

EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) - The Lafayette men's tennis team fought hard for every point as it defeated archrival Lehigh, 4-3, Monday at Sullivan Courts. The Leopards earned their first Patriot League victory of the season while the Mountain Hawks fell to 0-4 on the year. Lafayette won four of the six singles matches for the 4-3 win over the Mountain Hawks.

Lehigh earned the doubles point by winning the top two flights. Lafayette's Ryan Collins and John Zazzu took No. 3 doubles, 8-2, over Lehigh's Craig Ditman and Trey Fuller.

Freshman Matt Coin prevailed at No. 1 singles, giving up just three games as he defeated Lehigh's Ryan Cann, 6-1, 6-2. Lehigh's Ty Esler won the No. 2 singles over the Leopards' H'Cone Thompson, 6-3, 6-3. Matt Dankner took the Mountain Hawks' second singles win at the No. 3 spot over Lafayette's Ryan Collins, 6-2, 6-3.

The final three singles matches were battles including two three-set matches and two tiebreakers. Lafayette sophomore Devin Murphy defeated Lehigh's Ditman in straight sets, 7-6 (5), 6-2 at No. 4 singles. Freshman John Zazzu split the first two sets with Lehigh's Andrew Shapiro but came back to win, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.

Senior Mike Levey, playing in his last home match at Sullivan Courts, dropped the first set, 7-5, to Lehigh's Brad Wimmer. Levey fought back to win the second set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (1) before taking the third set, 6-4.

Singles:1. Matt Coin (LC) def. Ryan Cann (LU), 6-1, 6-22. Ty Esler (LU) def. H'Cone Thompson (LC), 6-3, 6-33. Matt Dankner (LU) def. Ryan Collins (LC), 6-2, 6-34. Devin Murphy (LC) def. Craig Ditman (LU), 7-6 (5), 6-25. John Zazzu (LC) def. Andrew Shapiro (LU), 6-1, 4-6, 6-36. Mike Levey (LC) def. Brad Wimmer (LU), 5-7, 7-6 (1), 6-4
Doubles:1. Cann/Dankner (LU) def. Coin/Thompson (LC), 8-42. Esler/Shapiro (LU) def. Murphy/Karapetian (LC), 8-03. Collins/Zazzu (LC) def. Ditman/Trey Fuller (LU), 8-2