The men’s tennis team had a dominating performance on Saturday, winning the first of its home dual matches by defeating IUPUI and Chicago State in consecutive matches.
The match against IUPUI proved to be the more competitive of the two. The Jaguars actually managed to take sets from Marquette, though they would end up losing 5-2.
“I was really impressed with the fight that IUPUI had,” coach Steve Rodecap said. “I felt like they really came in here and were ready to play. Our guys, I felt like we were a little bit slow to start, but we were able to get the doubles point.”
In doubles, junior Jonathan Schwerin and senior Jose Manuel Munoz were victorious 8-4, while sophomore Jose Carlos Gutierrez Crowley and freshman Dan Malamat had to take their doubles competition into extra games to earn a 9-7 victory. The only Marquette doubles loss came when freshman Logon Collins and junior Drake Kakar fell to Joel Modesitt and Nick Volz of IUPUI 8-6.
In singles play, Marquette took four of six matches. Schwerin and Crowley both took their matches, 6-3, 6-4, and Malamat was able to take his, 6-2, 6-3. The first Marquette loss came when Collins fell to Modesitt, 6-3, 6-7, 1-0 (13-11), though he did manage to force it into extra games. Munoz lost the other match to Volz, 2-6, 7-6, 1-0 (10-6) after suffering an injury to his foot and being unable to continue.
“In singles, I felt like Logon got a slow start, and many got hurt,” Rodecap said after the matches. “It’s good for Thibault to get a win, and Bird (Schwerin) played really well. Dan was really good today as well.”
In the second match, the Golden Eagles dominated an undermanned Chicago State team, winning 7-0 and not dropping a single set. Chicago State, who was only able to bring four athletes to the match, had to give up 2 points right away since they could not fill out a full roster.
“It felt a little more comfortable knowing that you already have one doubles match won and two singles matches won, but it’s always nice to play full matches,” Crowley said.
“You know, a lot of our guys didn’t get a chance to play, but the guys that did really stepped up and got wins in all our sets,” Malamat said after the matches.
In doubles, Malamat and Crowley were able to earn an 8-6 victory over Ankit Chopra and Armaan Choudhary of Chicago State. In the other doubles match, Schwerin and freshman Thibault Troude were able to sweep Viet Lam and Dave Regus 8-0.
Marquette dominated CSU in singles, not losing a set. Only one player, Crowley, lost more than three games. The most interesting match of the day came between Crowley and Choudhary, when Choudhary was able to force a close match in which Crowley won 6-0, 7-6.
Marquette next returns to action on Feb. 4 when Northern Illinois comes to the Helfaer Tennis Center.
