KEARNEY, Neb. — The St. Mary's University Men's Tennis team bounced back from its first loss on Friday afternoon to win a doubleheader on Saturday, defeating Barton County, 6-1 and Augustana (SD), 4-3, at the Earnest Grundy Tennis Center on the campus of Nebraska-Kearney.
"Collectively, I think the men had an impressive weekend," said Director of Tennis
Bill Macom. "They did a good job today, keeping their composure coming up against some adversity at a few of the singles positions. Even though we blew the doubles point in the second match, I was confident that our singles depth would take care of business. Overall, if we have to make any lineup substitutions, everyone will be quite reliable."
Both sophomore
Lucas Castillo Sanchez (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) and freshman
Nikita Gavrilonoks (Riga, Latvia) remained undefeated in singles action, moving to 7-0 with straight sets wins at No. 2 and 3, respectively. Neither player lost a set and posted identical scores in the doubleheader, as Sanchez won 6-3, 6-3, and Gavrilonoks won 6-4, 6-2 against both teams.
During the morning match, the teams played the junior college doubles format of 8-point sets, and all three Rattlers' duos won for the first point of the day. In the Augustana match, the Vikings (0-5) won on courts one and two for the initial point, and took a 2-0 lead with a win at No. 1 singles before the Rattlers won the next four singles matches to clinch the team's seventh victory of the year.
In singles against Barton (0-1), the Rattlers won five of the six matches, including four in straight sets, while freshman
Victor Velter (Perpignan, France) won a three-set battle at No. 4, 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 10-7.
Diego Alvarez (Santa Cruz, Bolivia),
Lincoln Baldonado (Glendale, Ariz.),
Fabian Rosales (Hollywood, Fla.), and
Florian Smalto (Paris, France) each won a match at either No. 5 or No. 6 to help the Rattlers improve to 7-1 on the young season.
The Rattlers will face Colorado Mesa at Lubbock Christian on March 7 at 9 a.m., before returning home to host Washington (Mo.) on March 9 at 3 p.m.
