Feb. 22, 2004
ALTOONA, Pa. - Collecting their first sweep in just over a year, the Cleveland State men's tennis team picked up a 7-0 win over St. Francis (Pa.) on Sunday afternoon in Altoona, Pa. The Vikings swept all six singles matches and also performed a sweep of the three doubles matches. With the win, their third straight on the season, the Vikings move to 4-7, while St. Francis falls to 0-7.
"A couple of years ago, we weren't winning these kinds of matches," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "Now, we've moved our play to another level, and we're starting to beat the teams that we're supposed to beat. We really built off the excitement from yesterday, and we took care of business today."
The Vikings took all three doubles matches, with Jay Tee and Eric Winn defeating Shaheed Mahomed and Brent Keough, 8-4 at No. 1 and Brett Aronson and Paul Haley knocking off Tyler Jones and Mike Tucci, 8-1 at No. 2. In the third doubles match, Dan Singer and Jordan Reynolds defeated Ryan O'Neill and Mike Pell, 8-0.
That momentum carried over into the singles matches, as all but one of them were decided in straight sets. Two of the singles matches, at No. 5 and No. 6, were won by Haley and Reynolds by identical 6-0, 6-0 margins. Tee and Singer won by identical 6-1, 6-0 counts at No. 2 and No. 4 singles, respectively, while Aronson won, 6-1, 6-2 at No. 3 singles. The only match that was competitive was at No. 1, where Winn needed three sets to defeat Mahomed, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Cleveland State has now won three straight men's matches for the first time since the program was reinstated prior to the 2000-01 season. In fact, the three straight wins equal the combined win total from the first two seasons after reinstatement.
The Vikings will try to make it four straight wins on Friday, Feb. 27, when they head to Niagara to take on the Purple Eagles. Cleveland State then returns home to face Toledo two days later at the River Oaks Racquet Club in Rocky River at 10 a.m.
