Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletics

Marquette men’s tennis opened its first week of the season 2-1, defeating Georgetown Jan. 25 and the University of Illinois at Chicago Jan. 26 at home after losing to Iowa on the road.

Marquette, the reigning BIG EAST champions, claimed the No. 2 doubles spot against Iowa Jan. 19 with the duo of senior Greg Anderson and freshman Fran San Andres. However, Iowa won No. 1 and 3 doubles. Iowa continued to dominate the singles matches, shutting out Marquette.

Marquette recovered quickly from its loss a week later against Georgetown.

Sophomore Luis Heredia Gomez and junior Luke Smrek defeated their opponents 7-5 in doubles at the No. 2 position. Marquette then won at No. 3 doubles and four of six singles matches to secure the victory. The Golden Eagles won 5-2.

Marquette wrapped up its weekend action the following day against UIC. Smrek and fellow junior Brett Meyers claimed the No. 2 doubles victory early on with a 6-3 win. Smrek then continued in the singles competition to defeat Johan Hedstrom after a long-lived run ending in a 11-9 tiebreaker at No. 2 singles. The Golden Eagles won the four singles sets to win its 13th consecutive home match.

Marquette has the chance to get its first road victory of the season at Purdue Saturday, which kicks off a stretch of four consecutive road matches.

The next home match is against Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Feb. 16 at Helfaer Tennis Stadium.