Freshman Ilja Orre clinched the Tribe victory with his second straight win.

College Park, Md. (2/14/09) - Using the strength of its singles lineup, the William and Mary men's tennis team pulled out a tight 4-3 victory over Big Ten foe Purdue on Saturday afternoon in College Park, Md. The No. 59 Tribe received individual wins from junior Keziel Juneau, senior Dominic Pagon, sophomore Sebastien Vidal and freshman Ilja Orre in recording its 10th victory of the season. 

Purdue took the early advantage with wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles slots to claim the initial point of the contest. The Green and Gold pair of Juneau and sophomore Ben Wirth tallied a win at the No. 2 pairs spot. The W&M duo defeated Branko Kuzmanovic and P.J. Rose, 8-5, for its second win of the season in as many tries.

In singles competition, the College quickly took the lead as Vidal and Pagon rolled to straight set wins. Vidal narrowly beat his teammate off the court upending Roberto Cabrini, 6-3, 6-0, at the No. 4 slot, before Pagon notched a win at the No. 3 position by the same identical score over Kuzmanovic. The win upped Vidal's season mark to 11-9, while Pagon notched his fourth straight triumph in improving to 12-6 on the year.

After a Boilermaker singles win at the No. 2 spot evened the team score at two, Juneau rallied for a come-from-behind three-set win at the top spot to put W&M within a victory of the team triumph. After dropping the first set, 6-3, to Slavko Bijelica, the Tribe junior forced a decisive third set with a tiebreaker win in the second, 7-6 (1). He rolled to his team-leading 15th singles win of the year with a 6-2 victory in the third set. He improved to 11-4 in dual matches at the top spot for the Green and Gold. Bijelica was ranked No. 19 in the ITA Midwest Singles Rankings entering the dual-match season.

With the bottom two singles matches on the court, the College needed one victory to pull out the team win. Orre clinched the Tribe triumph, downing Paul Foley, 6-3, 6-2, at the No. 6 singles slot. The W&M rookie recorded his second straight victory and eighth overall on the campaign.

The Tribe will return to the friendly confines of McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center next weekend for a Sunday doubleheader. W&M will host No. 30 Boise State at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22, before welcoming CAA foe James Madison to Williamsburg at 4 p.m.

#59 William and Mary 4, Purdue 3
Singles
No. 1 - Keziel Juneau (W&M) def. Slavko Bijelica (Purdue) - 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2
No. 2 - Eric Ramos (Purdue) def. Marwan Ramadan (W&M) - 7-5, 6-2
No. 3 - Dominic Pagon (W&M) def. Branko Kuzmanovic (Purdue) - 6-3, 6-0
No. 4 - Sebastien Vidal (W&M) def. Roberto Cabrini (Purdue) - 6-3, 6-0
No. 5 - P.J. Rose (Purdue) def. Richard Wardell (W&M) - 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
No. 6 - Ilja Orre (W&M) def. Paul Foley (Purdue) - 6-3, 6-2
Order of Finish: 4, 3, 2, 1, 6*, 5

Doubles
No. 1 - Bijelica/Griff Nienberg (Purdue) def. Pagon/Orre (W&M) - 8-6
No. 2 - Juneau/Ben Wirth (W&M) def. Kuzmanovic/Rose (Purdue) - 8-5
No. 3 - Foley/Ramos (Purdue) def. Vidal/Wardell (W&M) - 8-3
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1*