Men's Tennis Closes Regular Season With Two Home Matches

Posted: Apr 15, 2011

April 15, 2011

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Having already clinched the No. 1 seed in next week's Horizon League Championship, the Cleveland State men's tennis team will attempt to close out the regular season with two more wins at home this weekend.

CSU hosts Detroit on Saturday (April 16) at 11:00 a.m. in the final league match of the season and Northern Illinois on Sunday (April 17) at 11:00 p.m. The squad will attempt to play the matches on campus at the Malaga Tennis Center, but rain and poor weather could force the matches to be moved indoors to the Paramount Tennis Center in Westlake.

"This is a big weekend for us as we have to be able to sustain our winning ways heading into the league championship," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "We have been playing some great tennis over the last few weeks and it seems like we have a different player or two stepping up to help get key points during matches. Our goal every time we take the court is to go out and control every match from the start and I feel like we have been doing that over the last few weeks."

CSU enters the week with a 13-7 overall mark and are in first place in the Horizon League at 6-0, one-half match ahead of Green Bay who is 6-1.

The Vikings have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the league championship as a loss would tie CSU with the Phoenix, but the Vikings own a 4-3 win at Green Bay this season and would get the tiebreaker for the top seed.

In addition, CSU will be going after its 32nd straight win over a Horizon League opponent on Saturday.

"This is a big weekend for us as we have to be able to sustain our winning ways heading into the league championship. We have been playing some great tennis over the last few weeks and it seems like we have a different player or two stepping up to help get key points during matches. Our goal every time we take the court is to go out and control every match from the start and I feel like we have been doing that over the last few weeks."

Head coach Brian Etzkin

"The streak we have going is nice, but it's not what we are focused on right now," Etzkin said. "We know that every time we take the court, we are going to get everyone's best shot so we have to come prepared and ready to play both days."

CSU won a pair of league matches on the road last weekend, winning 5-2 at Wright State on Saturday (April 9) and 4-3 at Butler on Sunday (April 10).

Against WSU, the Vikings earned the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, before rain forced a majority of the singles matches to be moved indoors. The Vikings secured wins from John Haley at No. 5 singles and Rob Fox (No. 2) before things got very tight as the Raiders came away with wins at No. 6 and No. 1 singles to close within 3-2.

However, Chris Klepatz won a three-set match at No. 4 singles to give the Vikings the win, while Matt Kuelker gave CSU its fifth point with a victory at No. 3 singles.

CSU lost the doubles point at Butler and found themselves trailing in the match 3-2 with two singles contests left on the court. Klepatz once again came up big for the Vikings, winning at No. 4 singles to tie the match at 3-3 with just one match left on the court at No. 3 singles.

Kuelker once again stepped up, clinching a 4-3 win for the Vikings for the second time this season. His efforts helped him earn Horizon League Player of the Week honors for the first time in his career.

"Matt is playing some great tennis of late," Etzkin said. "In the third set of the Butler match, he really started to play better and better and you could see his opponent running out of gas. I feel that we are in very good condition and that's one of the reasons guys can go three sets and not wear down."

Kuelker's two wins last weekend allowed him to stay undefeated in singles play in the league at 6-0. Haley is also undefeated in Horizon League matches.

The Vikings, who have won three straight league championships, continue play next weekend at the Horizon League Championships, which will be played at North Central H.S. in Indianapolis, Ind. From April 21-23. As the top seed, the Vikings will receive an automatic bye into the semifinals and will play their first match on April 22.