March 24, 2012
Contact: Renee Adam
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DETROIT, Mich. - The Cleveland State men's tennis team opened up Horizon League play Friday evening, posting a 4-3 victory over Detroit, extending its regular season Horizon League win streak to 26 straight. The win improves CSU's overall record to 6-7 and 1-0 in league play, while the Titans fall to 5-10 (0-1).
"Tonight was a very exciting match for both teams, Detroit has definitely improved from last year and they really put up a fight tonight," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "We had three really tight doubles matches and won two of the three which ended up being the difference in the match for us. This was a good team win and we had multiple people step up for us throughout the contest. It was a good way for us to start the conference season and hopefully we can keep the momentum going throughout the coming weeks."
For the first time in the past four matches Cleveland State was able to pick up the doubles point, posting victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. The duo of Ali Shabib and Nolan Marks posted their team-leading seventh doubles victory at the No. 1 spot, claiming a 9-8 (7-4) victory, while Yannick Goossens and Matt Ford picked up an 8-6 win at No. 2 doubles.
After the Titans evened the score at 1-1 with a victory at No. 5 singles, sophomore Matt Kuelker marked his second career victory over UDM with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win at the No. 2 spot. Goossens, who is now 4-0 against the Titans in his career, followed Kuelker's performance with a 6-3, 6-3 victory of his own at No. 1 singles to give CSU the 3-1 advantage.
"Winning the doubles point was a great confidence lifter for us, giving us some momentum going into singles play," Etzkin said. "Yannick and Matt Kuelker led the way for us during the singles matches, as they both played from ahead the entire match and were able to come away with victories at the top of the lineup. Matt Ford was the clincher for us once again, I thought he executed the game plan well and put us on top. We have been working on how we portray ourselves on the court and what attitude we bring and I thought we did an excellent job of competing and fighting tonight against Detroit."
Detroit was then able to claim the No. 4 singles match, before Ford once again clinched the match for the Vikings. Ford, playing at No. 6 singles, posted a 0-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory to mark his team-leading ninth singles victory of the spring season.
CSU will finally return home next weekend, as they host non-conference opponent Western Michigan at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, March 30, before hosting Youngstown State at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 31.
Cleveland State 4, Detroit 3
Doubles:
1. Shabib/Marks (CSU) def. Basha/Cheung (UDM), 9-8 (7-4)
2. Goossens/Ford (CSU) def. Latosinsky/Stabley (UDM), 8-6
3. Nunez/Joshi (UDM) def. Kuelker/van der Vloet (CSU), 9-8 (7-5)
Singles:
1. Goossens, Yannick (CSU) def. LATOSINSKY, Alex (UDM) 6-3, 6-3
2. Kuelker, Matt (CSU) def. TOLOMEI, Nick (UDM) 6-3, 6-2
3. SERRANO, Cesar E. (UDM) def. Shabib, Ali (CSU) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
4. BASHA, Mike (UDM) def. Marks, Nolan (CSU) 2-6, 6-3, 6-1
5. NUNEZ, Pablo (UDM) def. Van Der Vloet, Jorg (CSU) 6-2, 6-2
6. Ford, Matt (CSU) def. STREETER, David (UDM) 0-6, 6-3, 6-1
