INIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Cleveland State men's tennis team returned to the road Thursday evening, falling at Butler, 7-0.
"Despite this being a 7-0 match, I thought it was a very close match – probably one of the closest 7-0 matches we have been in – which is a great growing experience for our young team," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "Butler got on us early with some very good doubles play, and at the start of singles play I thought we had turned the switch, but we just couldn't close out matches. We had enough close matches in singles play to make this a very competitive match, and I thought there were moments that we could have put multiple points on the board, but it just didn't happen for us today. We will get back on the courts tomorrow and give it all we have at IUPUI."
Despite the final score, Cleveland State was able to push three of the six singles matches to three sets, with Nico Mostardi (No. 1), Colton Buffington (No. 2), and William Malm (No. 3) all pushing their matches to the limit.
Kevin Goth was also able to push his No. 6 singles match to a pair of 6-4 sets, after earning a spot in the singles lineup for just the second time this spring.
Cleveland State will continue its roadswing tomorrow (Friday, February 17), traveling to IUPUI for a 4:00 p.m. match.
Butler 7, Cleveland State 0
Doubles
1. Khmiadashvili/Dragos (BUT) def. Buffington/Goth (CSU), 6-1
2. Ben Shabat/Gerstein (BUT) def. Mostardi/Mick (CSU), 6-3
3. Lang/Adelakun (BUT) vs. Malm/Slade (CSU), 3-3, unf.
Singles
1. Aviv Ben Shabat (BUT) def. Nico Mostardi (CSU), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3
2. Mikheil Khmiadashvili (BUT) def. Colton Buffington (CSU), 1-6, 6-3, 7-5
3. Mason Dragos (BUT) def. William Malm (CSU), 6-7 (2), 7-6 (4), 11-9
4. Spencer Lang (BUT) def. Benjamin Slade (CSU), 6-3, 6-1
5. Ari Gerstein (BUT) def. Jack Santilli (CSU), 6-2, 6-0
6. Adrian Mag (BUT) def. Kevin Goth (CSU), 6-4, 6-4