Saturday's match held a lot of firsts for the Marquette men's tennis team.

The most obvious was the first sweep of the season, a 7-0 victory over Eastern Illinois at the Helfaer Tennis Stadium. Also, the Golden Eagles No. 1 singles player, senior Eigis Vedrickas, won his first match of the season.

But perhaps the most important development was the energy in doubles, which is something the team had lacked in earlier matches.

"Our doubles energy is getting better," said head coach Steve Rodecap in a statement. "I was proud of the energy that Pete (Van Lieshout) brought to the court today, he played outstanding."

Van Lieshout and sophomore Brett Binkley took advantage of their first chance at No. 1 doubles, knocking off the Panther duo of Chuck LeVaque and Brandon Lenfert 8-4.

The freshman team of Stephen Shao and Trent Hagan won their match 8-1 to give Marquette the first point.

The Golden Eagles went on to win all six singles matches including Vedrickas' first win. At the beginning of the season Vedrickas said in his senior season that he would focus more on his effort than trying to get better.

"I just want to work as hard as I can during practice," Vedrickas said. "There's not that much left. We (the seniors) are too old to go out and worry about things" like techniques and handling pressure.

Vedrickas has struggled early, losing all four of his matches entering Saturday. Not the best way to start your final season.

So after Vedrickas' defeat of LeVaque in No. 1 singles 6-4, 7-6, the Golden Eagles hope he will regain his form and play the kind of tennis they all know he can play.

"That was a good win for Eigis," Rodecap said. "Hopefully today's win will start a run of matches for him."

On the other end, Greg Sirotek continued his good start by beating Eastern Illinois' Jordan Nestrud 6-2, 6-7 for his third win in as many matches.

Two of the matches went to a third set, and when it came down to the final set, the Golden Eagles won decisively. Kawas won his match over Vuk Milicevic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, and Hagan beat Lenfert 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.

Even after the win, Rodecap was not entirely satisfied with his team.

"We have to continue to work hard on composure and close out matches when we can," he said. "We still have a ways to go before we are the team we have the potential to be."

Marquette returns to action next Saturday in a double-header against Chicago State and Western Illinois at the Helfaer Tennis Stadium.