BUCKHANNON, W. Va. – The Davis & Elkins men's tennis team closed out its fall season with a solid 6-1 win over Salem University on Monday afternoon. The Senators secured the doubles point to take an early lead and followed with wins on the top four singles courts. With the victory, D&E evened its season dual record at 1-1 as the team heads into the championship segment of its season in February.

"We had a couple of nice breakthroughs today with guys who have been working on their mental approach," head coach Mark Walters said. "Justus Petersilie controlled his match from start to finish to get us on the board early, and then Duarte Correia and Filippo Buffo each grinded out tiebreakers and pulled off wins in close matches. Christo Wirahadipoernomo also earned his first college victory in a tight match at No. 4 singles, where he had been struggling to finish. Those three guys are improving in how they approach bigger points, and they were very disciplined under pressure today."

Although the temperatures were chilly, the Senators heated up during the bigger moments of their singles matches. D&E senior Viktor Yanev completed his impressive fall campaign—where he has gone 7-2 overall in singles—by topping Salem's Skander Mezouar 6-3, 6-4 at the top spot. Yanev controlled the tempo throughout and stayed ahead nearly the entire match. Buffo, Santiago Ordonez, and Correia all battled to win tiebreakers or fought back from a set down, with only Ordonez falling in a super-tiebreaker, 7-10, at No. 3 singles, giving Salem its lone point.

Walters believes the team has more depth than in past years, as well as a stronger top half of the lineup. The addition of Yanev, a proven talent and one of the top-ranked players in the Atlantic Region, has certainly helped.

"As a team, we've had some close matches with Salem the past three years and have been about 50-50 overall," Walters said. "Both matches last year went 4-3, so to see some space between us this time was encouraging, especially since we were playing without one of our top guys who's out with the flu. Coming off a close loss to UVA Wise, and after solid fall tournament results, I feel we can see improvement across the roster. And having Viktor doesn't hurt. He's been a top player at this level for three years and competes so hard. He's great for the younger guys as they find their legs."

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