Men's tennis rallies to defeat West Chester 5-4

PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia University men's tennis team earned its first victory of the spring in come-from-behind fashion, 5-4 over West Chester Friday afternoon in the Legacy Youth Tennis Center.

After dropping the first two doubles matches, Philadelphia (3-5) got a huge victory from James Pollard (Mechanicsville, Va./Hanover) and Long Vo (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton Area) at No. 3 singles to keep the Rams in the match. Facing a 7-4 deficit against Lucas Von der Heyde and Troy Donato, Pollard and Vo rallied off five straight games to win the match 9-7.

Nicolas Affolter (Freienbach, Switzerland/Kantonsschule Ausserschwz) got singles off to a strong start with a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Charlie Rushing in the No. 2 flight to tie the match at two. With West Chester leading 3-2, Jacobo Atri (Mexico City, Mexico/Colegio Hebreo Monte Sinai, AC) evened up the match with a 7-5, 6-2 victory against Lars Kristiansen.

The Golden Rams (1-2) moved with a point of taking the match as West Chester's Tony Deimler was a winner at No. 4 singles.

Philadelphia received three-set victories from Celso de Vera Rehberger (Oviedo, Spain/Santa Maria del Naranco) and Nail Rachidi (Meknes, Morocco/Emile Anouar) to win the match. Rachidi dropped the first set against Andrew Peterson in the No. 6 flight 6-2, but came back to win the final two sets 6-1, 6-4. De Vera Rehberger needed three sets to win his match at No. 1 after Jared Howat took the first set in a tiebreak 7-6 (7-3). He recovered to win set two 6-4 and the deciding set 6-3.

Philadelphia's next match comes on Sunday, March 15 against Georgetown (Ky.) in Myrtle Beach, S.C.