Coker Men's Tennis Falls to No. 20 Francis Marion, 5-4

HARTSVILLE, S.C. – In arguably the great men's tennis match to be played at Coker College, the Cobra men fell just short of defeating the nationally ranked No. 20 Patriots of Francis Marion, 5-4.  The loss drops the Cobras to 2-2 on the year.

The match started with a trilling 8-4 win at No. 2 doubles by Tom Sizeland and William Marrafao. Unfortunately, the Cobras found themselves trailing 2-1 after the doubles portion of the match.

That did not stop them from playing six stellar singles matches, starting with Andre Staab's 7-5, 6-0 win at No. 1 over the No. 10 ranked player in NCAA Division II, Alex Caspari. Tom Sizeland followed with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 2. William Marrafao gave Coker its fourth victory of the match with a hard fought 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) win at No. 4 singles.

With the score tied 4-4 the match came down to the No. 5 singles match between James Corfield and Eimon Heywood. Neither player was willing to concede to the other, as Corfield took the first set 6-4 and Heywood took the second 7-5. Nearly seven hours after the first serve of the match, Heywood came out on top with a 7-6 (9-7) win during the tiebreaker set, giving FMU the 5-4 win.

The Cobras will return to the court on Wednesday (Feb. 13) when they travel to Raleigh, N.C. to face Shaw University at 3 p.m.