In the first day of play, the Golden Eagles met Wisconsin in the first round of singles and Northern Illinois for the second round. In doubles action, the team went up against Minnesota.
Against Madison, the Golden Eagles’ lone victory came when sophomore Ricky Servoss beat the Badgers’ Mike Goodman, 7-6, 5-7, 10-6. Sophomore Ian Kawas fell to Alex Conti in three sets, 5-7, 6-1, 10-8. Meanwhile, freshman Hugo Leenders, sophomore Eigintas Vedrickas, senior Creighton Macy, and freshman Tomek Czernuszewicz lost in straight sets to their opponents.
In the second round of singles action, the Golden Eagles met Northern Illinois. The Huskies earned a sweep as they rattled off six singles victories. In the match, no member of the Golden Eagles went to three sets with their opponent; they all fell in two.
Doubles play pitted the team against Minnesota. The lone doubles victory came from Leenders and Vedrickas when they defeated Golden Gophers Avery Ticer and Chris Wettengel, 8-5.
The team of Leenders and Vedrickas has been paired up this year in previous tournaments, and Vedrickas feels the two are starting to become more comfortable with each other’s play on the court.
“I think the two of us have developed a relationship on the court where we are getting much better working together,” Vedrickas said. “At first we had to work things out, but now I think we are getting used to each other and I look forward to playing with (Leenders).”
Day two of the tournament put the Golden Eagles up against Iowa and Nebraska in singles play while the team took on Northern Illinois in doubles. Leenders said the team “came into the second day of the tournament with a different mentality.”
Playing against Iowa, the team took two of six matches as Leenders and senior Creighton Macy earned victories. While Leenders defeated Chaitu Malempati in two sets, Macy went to three sets with Jonny Hoak, beating him with scores of 7-6, 2-6 and 10-3.
Leenders was the lone winner for the Golden Eagles against Nebraska, as he defeated Joel Reckewey with scores of 7-6 and 6-2.
Taking on Northern Illinois in doubles action to end day two, all three doubles teams lost to the Huskies.
Closing out the tournament, the Golden Eagles met Minnesota in singles play and Iowa in doubles.
In singles play, the team took one of six matches as Servoss defeated Sion Wilkins, 6-2, 2-6, 10-5. In other singles activity, Macy took Brian Lipinski to three sets, but came up on the short end, 6-3, 5-7. 13-11.
Doubles action versus Iowa saw the Hawkeyes defeat the Golden Eagles, 3-0. Teams were shuffled as well, as Macy paired up with Leenders, Servoss and Vedrickas teamed up, and Kawas and Czernuszewicz played together as well.