The Marquette men’s tennis team hosted its final match of the season against Butler and came out with a 5-2 victory. The Golden Eagles finished the season undefeated at home.
Before the match began Marquette honored seniors Daniel Fernandez and Gleb Sklyr. In attendance for senior day was Fernandez’s mother, who flew from Spain to watch her son play at Marquette for the first time.
The match started with two convincing doubles victories for Marquette. At No. 2 doubles Greg Anderson and Alvaro Verdu won their match 6-1 and at No. 3 Kristiyan Trukov and Mackenzie Stearns also won 6-1.
“I felt like we did a really good job in doubles,”said men’s head coach Steve Rodecap. “We jumped on them early and set the tone.”
Butler would come back and challenge Marquette in singles. With three of the six matches going the full three sets, there were no easy matches. At the No. 2 singles position, Verdu battled back from being down 5-0 in his first set to take the set 7-6 and eventually won the match 7-6, 6-3.
After a Stearns victory, Butler had two wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. The Golden Eagles held on to a narrow 3-2 lead with two matches still in action. In the No. 6 position, Andre Romanello lost the first set 5-7, and won the second 6-1. After exchanging games with his opponent, Romanello was able to pull ahead and win the match 6-4 and secure the victory for Marquette.
“I felt a lot of pressure, but I had the momentum,” Romanello said. “Our games were both very similar and because we are both consistent the first one who has the advantage is the one who has the short ball. I was trying to not be the first one who gives up the short ball and whenever I had the short ball try and take advantage.”
Rodecap noted his team’s resiliency – which had been an issue all season – but work still needs to be done before the postseason.
“You have to give Butler a lot of credit because they didn’t flinch,”” Rodecap said. “We took the first swing at them and they didn’t back down at all. They came out in singles and completely jumped on us. Our guys need to do a better job of using that doubles point … This has to be a learning experience for these guys.”
The Golden Eagles will conclude their regular season this weekend against DePaul.
