Nick Ludwig
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg Tigers kicked off the 2011-12 season with a pair of convincing victories over Indiana Tech and Wilmington.
The day started with a good challenge from Indiana Tech, but the Tigers prevailed 6-3. Later in the day, Wittenberg swept the Quakers 9-0 without dropped more than four games in any match.
Against Indiana Tech, the Tigers started by winning two of three doubles matches, including an 8-0 whitewashing at the No. 3 position by freshman Ian Streicker (South Lebanon, Ohio/Loveland) and sophomore Tyler Strong(Louisville, Ky./DuPont Manual). Streicker added a comfortable win at No. 1 singles as the Tigers won four of those six matches, including a pair of 6-0, 6-0 wins at the No. 5 and 6 positions from junior Sergio Fishkin (Minsk, Belarus) and Strong.
Against Wilmington, Streicker and Strong were double-winners again, teaming up this time to win at No. 2 doubles to go along with singles victories at the No. 1 and No. 4 positions. Twins Alexey and Alexander Topolyanskiy (Moscow, Russia)were winners at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively, and sophomore Jonathan Mueller (Bexley, Ohio/Hartley) and freshman Jialang Woo (Shanghai, China)rounded out the singles sweep with wins at No. 5 and No. 6.
Alexander Topolyanskiy teamed with Fishkin to win at No. 1 doubles, and sophomore Joe Marra (Great Falls, Mont./Great Falls) and junior Nick Ludwig (Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentangy) paired up for the win at No. 3 doubles.