PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Cleveland State men's tennis team picked up its first win of the spring season Saturday evening, capturing a 5-2 victory at Duquesne. The Vikings now stand at 1-1 after the first week of dual match play.
"We got a good team win tonight, it was a very competitive match that could have gone either way. We were able to pick up some come-from-behind wins by playing clutch tennis and I think this is a good starting point for the spring season," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "The doubles matches were very exciting, we were able to come back from down 0-4 at No. 3 doubles to pick up the win after Nico started slapping forehands, and were then able to clinch the opening point with a tiebreak win at No. 1"
Cleveland State picked up the opening point in the match with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles – a 7-6 (3) victory from Colton Buffington and Kevin Goth at the top spot and a matching 7-6 (3) victory from Nico Mostardi and Andre Mick at No. 3 doubles.
The Vikings were able to add another point at the start of singles play then, with Mostardi cruising to a 6-3, 6-1 victory at the top of the lineup.
After Duquesne picked up a point at No. 6 singles, the Vikings were able to win the next two singles points, with William Malm picking up a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win at No. 3 singles and Buffington posting a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 win at the No. 2 spot to clinch the match for the Vikings.
The two teams then split the final two singles matches, with Duquesne picking up a win at the No. 4 spot, and Benjamin Slade posting a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) win at No. 5 singles
"We really battled during singles today, although we were ahead in the overall match, we were behind in a lot of the individual singles matches, but were able to focus and play some solid tennis to pick up four singles wins. Overall I thought we had a good first week of the spring season, and can't wait to get back to practice and work on some things before continuing the season," Etzkin said.
The Vikings will now have a week off from competition, before returning to action at Bucknell (Friday, February 3) and Penn State (Saturday, February 4).
Cleveland State 5, Duquesne 2
Doubles
1. Buffington/Goth (CSU) def. Corrao/Ong (DUQ), 7-6 (3)
2. Blasinsky/Akins (DUQ) def. Slade/Radosevic (CSU), 6-4
3. Mostardi/Mick (CSU) def. Kane/Isaacs (DUQ), 7-6 (3)
Singles
1. Nico Mostardi (CSU) def. Adam Blasinsky (DUQ), 6-3, 6-1
2. Colton Buffington (CSU) def. D. Stavropoulos (DUQ), 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3
3. William Malm (CSU) def. Chris Corrao (DUQ), 7-6 (5), 6-4
4. Tim Kane (DUQ) def. Jack Santilli (CSU), 6-1, 5-7, 6-2
5. Benjamin Slade (CSU) def. Andrew Ong (DUQ), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4)
6. Jared Isaacs (DUQ) def. Mirko Radosevic (CSU), 7-5, 6-2
