(Spring Arbor, MI) The Cardinal men's tennis team returned to action this past weekend with an away match against Spring Arbor University. Concordia fell to the Cougars with a final score of 7-0.
Tristan Waechter was a part of two of the closest matches as he just came up just short in his singles match. Waechter's singles contest went to three sets, with each of them being decided by 2 games. The final score ended at 4-6, 7-5, 8-10 in favor of the Cougars. Waechter's other close match was in doubles with partner Eli Werner. The pair took the competition to a tie breaker, losing narrowly, 6-7 (4-6).
James Olson and Ryan Curtis each played in close singles matchups with Olson falling 4-6, 3-6 and Curtis losing 2-6, 4-6. Curtis and partner Sam Dobben took their doubles competition to a 3-6 finish as well.
Following the Spring Arbor match, CUAA played an exhibition match against Cornerstone University on Saturday afternoon in which the Cardinals came away victorious.
The third doubles team consisting of senior, Sean Sheppard, and freshman, Eli Werner, came away with the first victory of the day by a score of 6-3. Cornerstone was not far behind and took down their CUAA second doubles opponents, seniors Ryan Curtis and Sam Dobben, in a closely contested 6-4 set. The doubles point came down to the top flight where sophomores, James Olson and Adam DiMaggio, were down 5-2 at the time. The two turned it around and rallied to win 5 straight games in an impressive 7-5 set win for the Cardinals. This was the first time all fall that the team had come away with the elusive doubles point and been able to carry that momentum into singles.
At #1 Singles, James Olson took a tough first set loss 7-5, after having been up 5-2 in the set. Olson made an impressive comeback to win the second set and the ensuing tiebreaker. This was a great victory for the cardinals to win at the top flight of the day.
At #2 singles, senior Ryan Curtis had arguably the most exciting match of the day as Curtis was able to battle to a first set victory by a score of 7-6 (8-6). His tough Cornerstone opponent came back to take a very close 6-4 second set and force the match tiebreaker. It was hard fought but Curtis came up just a bit short on the match, losing in the 10 point breaker.
The #3 Singles was a back and forth match for sophomore Adam DiMaggio. DiMaggio took off to a great start following up his serves with his great hands at the net and throwing off his Cornerstone opponents game. He jumped out to an early 4-1 lead and was able to fight off his opponent and take the set 7-5. After going down 4-1 in the second set, Adam rebounded (just as he had in doubles) to take 5 straight games and win his match by a finally tally of 7-5, 6-4.
The #4 singles match featured CUAA's freshman Eli Werner. Eli has had a very impressive fall in his first year on the team, picking up more individual wins than any other member. He fell short Saturday in a match that consisted of many long back and forth rallies, a few of which consisted of at least 50 shots.
At #5 singles, senior Sam Dobben came away with the overall match clinching victory for the Cardinals. Dobben put together an impressive streak of points to win the first set 7-6 (7-2). In the second set Dobben was able to finish with some nice touch/angled volleys. Dobben won the match by a score of 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.
At the #6 singles flight, Sean Sheppard, a senior in his debut fall season with the team rose to the occasion and took down his evenly matched Cornerstone opponent in a 6-4, 6-4 battle.
CUAA men's tennis will resume play in their spring conference season coming up in February of 2020.
