CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland State men's tennis team picked up a 4-3 victory over Buffalo Friday afternoon, improving to 8-5 on the year.
PDF BOX SCORE | Cleveland State 4, Buffalo 3
Quick Hits
· With his win at the top of the singles lineup, Nico Mostardi is now in sole possession of 10th place on the CSU Singles Wins List with 61 career victories.
· Clark Bilinovich extended his singles winstreak to seven matches on Friday, picking up a 6-2, 7-6(2) win at the No. 6 spot.
· For the season, Clark Bilinovich now has a team-high 18 singles wins, including a team-best 9-3 record this spring.
· Nico Mostardi and Benjamin Slade improved to 10-5 on the season in doubles action following a 6-0 victory at No. 1 doubles, and are now just two wins shy of notching their 20th victory as a doubles team.
· With the 4-3 win against Buffalo, the Vikings improved to 5-1 at the MMTP this season.
The Match
The Vikings were able to get out to the 1-0 lead after picking up the doubles point, earning wins at No. 1 doubles from Nico Mostardi and Benjamin Slade and No. 3 doubles from Raul Teichmann and Clark Bilinovich.
Nico Mostardi then gave the Vikings a quick 2-0 advantage following a 6-1, 6-1 win at the top of the lineup, while Clark Bilinovich put Cleveland State up 3-0 after a straight-set win at the No. 6 spot.
Buffalo was then able to even the match at 3-3 after picking up three straight singles wins at No. 4, No. 3 and No. 2 singles, putting the final match on the court at No. 5 singles.
After dropping the first set 6-4 at the No. 5 spot, Raul Teichmann battled back to pick up a 7-5 win in the second set and then earned a 6-4 win in the third and final set to clinch the match for the Vikings.
From The Sidelines
"Buffalo is a team that has gotten the better of us over the last couple years, so it was good to turn around a 7-0 loss from last year and come out on the winning end this year. This kind of tight 4-3 match is what I have come to expect when we go up against Buffalo, and it definitely could have gone either way today. I give a lot of credit to Buffalo for putting up such a great fight and really making us work for this win."
"The doubles point ended up being key, and then getting a quick point on the board from Nico was huge for us to get some momentum going in our favor. Clark keeps rolling in singles play for us, and he was able to get us a 3-0 lead, which put us in a good spot. With the match tied at 3-3, Raul was able to get the closer for us, playing some focused tennis to come away with the win." – head coach Brian Etzkin
Up Next
· Cleveland State will host a pair of matches on Sunday (March 3), facing Xavier at 10:00 a.m. and Wooster at 2:00 p.m.
The Results
Doubles (1, 3)
1. Mostardi/Slade (CSU) def. Nittolo, Holm (UB), 6-0
2. Malm/Phillips (CSU) vs. Fridell/Wibler (UB), 4-4, unf.
3. Teichmann/Bilinovich (CSU) def. Koay/Frisk (UB), 6-3
Singles (1, 6, 4, 3, 2, 5)
1. Nico Mostardi (CSU) def. Vilhelm Fridell (UB), 6-1, 6-1
2. Ethan Nittolo (UB) def. Matthew Terry (CSU), 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1
3. Hao Sheng Koay (UB) def. Luke Phillips (CSU), 7-6(6), 6-4
4. Nickolas Frisk (UB) def. Benjamin Slade (CSU), 6-4, 7-6(3)
5. Raul Teichmann (CSU) def. Valdemar Holm (UB), 4-6, 7-5, 6-4
6. Clark Bilinovich (CSU) def. Simon Wibler (UB), 6-2, 7-6(2)
