DES MOINES, Iowa – In a hotly contested match that included four third-set tiebreakers in singles play, the Concordia University men’s tennis team came up just shy of its first win of the 2017 season. Host Central College, affiliated with NCAA Division III, eked out a 5-4 victory over the Bulldogs in a contest that took place in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday.
Third-year head coach Joel Reckewey’s squad has fallen to 0-4 overall this season. The Concordia men also dropped a 6-3 decision to Grand View University (Iowa) on Friday.
“It was a heartbreaking loss, but we competed all the way to the end,” Reckewey said. “I’m proud of the way we played. We were two points away from victory, two separate times. We were close enough to taste it.”
Singles matches at Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 6 all went to third-set tiebreakers. Concordia came out on top in two of those bouts. The Bulldogs’ Thomas Greeff held off Jacob Logan, 6-2, 5-7, 10-6, at No. 2 and Josh Miller triumphed over Scott Wilson, 6-4, 5-7, 11-9, at No. 6. Concordia also got a singles win from Gabe Poling (6-1, 6-4) at No. 5.
The lone Bulldog victory in doubles action came at No. 2 where Greeff and Lucas Zoller teamed up for a 9-7 decision over Garret Taylor and Wilson.
Both No. 2 Javier Moreno (6-4, 4-6, 10-8) and No. 4 Zoller (6-2, 4-6, 10-8) suffered close losses in singles in singles play. Concordia’s No. 1 spot was manned by Patricio Esquivel.
The Bulldogs will return to action on Friday when they in Fremont, Neb., versus Southwestern College (Kan.), a member of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference. The match is slated to get started at 4 p.m. CT.