MTU Men\’s Tennis Opens Spring Season with 2-1 Weekend
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The Michigan Tech men\’s tennis team completed its opening weekend of the spring season with two wins and a loss. The Huskies defeated Ripon 9-0 Friday (Feb. 25), lost to St. John\’s 5-4 Saturday (Feb. 26) and defeated St. Cloud State 6-3 Sunday (Feb. 27).
Tech swept all nine flights at Ripon in straight sets. All three doubles teams won 8-0, and No. 1 singles player Luka Stupar also recorded a perfect score with a 6-0, 6-0 decision.
\”It was good to open the season with a win,\” said head coach Mike Axford. \”We played solid tennis for our first match of the year.\”
The Huskies traveled from Ripon, Wis., to Collegeville, Minn., where it faced St. John\’s Saturday. The match went down to the wire, but the Johnnies won three of the six singles flights in super tiebreakers to claim the 5-4 victory.
Tech trailed 2-1 after doubles, but rallied to win each of the next three completed flights for a 4-2 lead. Tech needed to win just any of the three remaining flights to claim the team win, but lost all three in super tiebreakers—two by just two points each. Huskies\’ No. 5 Andrew Kremkow was edged 6-1, 3-6, 10-8. Stupar lost 7-5, 6-7 (4),
10-4 at No. 1. Chris Verhulst was nipped 7-6 (1), 5-7, 11-9 at No. 6.
\”This was a tough loss,\” said Axford. \”We fought hard to come back from being down 2-1 but came up just short.\”
Michigan Tech wrapped up its weekend on a positive note, defeating St. Cloud State 6-3. The Huskies swept the doubles competition and the top three singles flights in the victory.
Anders Sandholm polished off a 6-0 weekend with his third No. 2 doubles win and third No. 2 singles win in the match. Stupar and No. 3 singles player Doug Yossida also won twice during the match.
\”It was good to finish the weekend with a win,\” said Axford. \”We started out strong in doubles and played much better in singles.
\”We need to build on these matches and continue to improve next week.\”
Michigan Tech will travel to Orlando, Fla., for five matches on its annual spring break trip. The first of those five will be against Aquinas on Saturday (Mar. 5).