CLAREMONT, Calif. - No. 8 Trinity Men's Tennis was tripped up by No. 4 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 7-2, in the 2022 Stag-Hen Invitational finale on Saturday in a midseason battle of the west's top two squads.
The Tigers (10-4) trailed after doubles, then found themselves in a 4-1 deficit as the singles action wound down. Hao Nguyen (Sugar Land, Texas / Strake Jesuit) brought Trinity back to life after back-to-back straight-sets defeats with a straight-setter of his own from the second line.
Nguyen and Christian Settles (Claremont, Calif. / Claremont) represented the Tigers' first point with six-straight points in line-one doubles to rally from a 7-2 deficit for an 8-7 (8-6) mark, which prevented the doubles sweep for the Stags and collected a nationally-ranked victory in the west's one-versus-two doubles matchup.
Now with the Nguyen decision in the books, match point now sat on the shoulders of Alessio Azzalini (Rome, Italy / Istituto Visconti), Wilson Hamilton (Austin, Texas / ATA Prep) and Eric Liao (Taipei, Taiwan / Boca Prep), as they all were in the midst of heated third-set battles, all three of which sat with one-game margins.
Liao's battle in the sixth line came after a five-game rally shot the Tiger rookie past the nation's 14th-ranked player to force his third set, which was in the early stages at the time of Nguyen's victory.
Hamilton put together a 6-2 second set to pull even in line five after a 6-4 count in the first frame. The senior was approaching a tie at five apiece in the third.
Azzalini was the furthest into his third stanza, already a couple points into his tiebreaker. After a slow start in his 6-2 loss in the first set, Azzalini stormed back for a 6-4 second set and had his 27th-ranked opponent on the ropes. The tiebreaker finally saw separation after a 3-3 tie, ultimately cedeing the match to the Stags on the 7-3 tiebreaker tally in line three.
Hamilton checked in just after the echoes of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps's celebration had faded as he fell by a 7-5 mark. Liao rounded out the scorebook minutes later after a 6-4 defeat of his own.
Up Next
No. 8 Trinity Men's Tennis returns to San Antonio for three-straight home matches against nationally-ranked opponents on Tuesday, March 22. No. 25 Kalamazoo College (MI) leads off the week, followed by No. 2 University of Chicago and No. 20 University of Mary Washington.
