,”Before Sunday's matches against Eastern Illinois and South Dakota State, men's tennis coach Steve Rodecap said he planned on experimenting with different doubles lineups.

He may have found a winning tandem in juniors Dusan Medan and Mark Rutherford.

Medan and Rutherford won their first two matches as a doubles duo at Helfaer Tennis Stadium on Sunday. The pair posted an 8-0 shutout over the Panthers at No. 2 doubles followed by an 8-3 win over the Jackrabbits in the No. 1 doubles slot.

Medan said he focused on keeping the pressure high in both matches.

"As a team we thought we outmatched them, but it was important to come out and take care of business from the first point," Medan said.

Rodecap said he was happy with the new partners' performance, but will continue to review the team's options at doubles.

"Those were the first two matches they ever played together," he said. "We liked what we saw there…It's still not set in stone yet, the season is still early, we'll still be evaluating those guys and the rest of those guys on a daily basis."

Leading into Sunday's twin 7-0 victories, the Golden Eagles had lost the doubles point in their last four matches. The only loss for Marquette in the double header was an 8-7 squeaker for Eastern Illinois at No. 1 doubles over seniors Trent Hagan and Stephen Shao.

Before Sunday's match, Rodecap stressed the importance of solid doubles play.

"The doubles point is so key in college tennis," he said. "I feel like with the teams we put out there the last few matches, if things go well, we're pretty good. But I think it's still early enough that we may see some different doubles line ups in the next few matches."

Marquette's three freshmen all saw action in singles play. Jonathan Schwerin and Drake Kakar posted two singles victories on the day and J.T. Christian notched a singles win against South Dakota State.

Schwerin, in the No. 3 singles slot versus Eastern Illinois, dropped the first three games of the match, but rallied to win 6-3, 7-5. He said the turnaround was a matter of concentration.

"Those first three games I just let slip," Schwerin said. "I just wasn't thinking out there. After that I started to get motivated and I took it to him."

Rodecap said he was impressed with the performance of the freshmen.

"I think our three freshmen contributed in a big way today," he said. "That's important for us to be good, we have to count on our young guys and continue to see those guys develop and get better. That's what this program is built on, having guys come in and continue to get better."

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