INDIANOLA, Iowa – The Concordia University men’s tennis team canvassed NCAA Division III schools in Iowa over the week of spring break. In action on Thursday (March 12), the Bulldogs dominated NCAA D-III Simpson College (Iowa), 9-0, in Indianola, Iowa. It marked the third-straight day of tennis competition for Concordia.
Second-year head coach David DeSimone’s squad ended the road trip with back-to-back victories and now stands at 6-4 overall. On Wednesday, Concordia defeated Central College (Iowa), 6-3.
“Both teams played really well in some difficult outdoor conditions,” DeSimone said of Thursday’s match. “The men started off with some strong doubles and played smart tennis in the wind. It was a good match for us to try some different things and expand our comfort zone as a team.”
From a team scoring perspective, this outing could not have gone better. The tightest individual match occurred at No. 2 singles where freshman Eduardo Rojas outlasted Brett Dewerff in a tiebreaker, 6-2, 2-6, 11-9. Junior Jeremy Berryman breezed at the No. 1 spot, 6-2, 6-0. Additional singles victors were sophomore Isaac Howes at No. 3, sophomore Jack Kitson at No. 4, freshman Juan Rabellino at No. 5 and sophomore Joe Bindl at No. 6.
The Concordia combos in doubles play featured Berryman and Kitson at No. 1, Rabellino and senior Luke Zoller at No. 2 and Howes and Rojas at No. 3. The scores were 8-2 at No. 1, 8-0 at No. 2 and 8-4 at No. 3. These lineups were adjusted from what had been the norm. Kitson and Rojas are 5-1 this season as a pair.
Simpson (3-9) competes as a member of the American Rivers Conference. Concordia was the second NAIA school the Storm had played against this season. Simpson also dropped a 7-2 decision to St. Ambrose University (Iowa).
The situation will be fluid moving forward. The Bulldogs were scheduled to open up conference play at home on March 21 versus Northwestern, but that match will be postponed. The GPAC announced on March 13 that all conference member athletic activities will be suspended during the time period of March 16 through April 5 due to the coronavirus pandemic.