Men’s tennis remains unbeaten in GPAC play

CRETE, Neb. – Continuing the trend of improved play in 2014, the Concordia University men’s tennis team defeated rival Doane 5-4 on Thursday evening in Crete, Neb. Meanwhile the Bulldog women lost by a score of 8-1 at the hands of the Tigers.

The Concordia men are now 8-4 overall and 3-0 in conference action. The women slipped to 1-8 overall and 1-2 in the GPAC.

Led by their No. 2 and 3 doubles wins, the Bulldog men continued their strong play in doubles bouts. The 2-1 lead, followed by a split of the six singles matches, helped push Concordia to a 5-4 win over Doane, a year after falling by an 8-1 decision to the Tigers.

The match came down to No. 2 singles, where Javier Moreno outlasted Tyler Johnson, 7-5, 7-5, to allow the Bulldogs to remain unbeaten inside the conference. Moreno leads the team with a 7-5 singles mark.

Concordia also got singles wins at No. 5 from Jonathan Douglas and at No. 6 from Mike McCartney. Douglas came through with a 7-5, 3-6, 10-7 win in his first opportunity of the season in singles. On the other hand, McCartney bumped his season record to 6-5.

The Bulldog men are now an impressive 22-14 in doubles play on the season. The 3-3 split in singles puts Concordia at 10-8 in singles action against GPAC opponents this season.

In the only victory for the women, senior Katelyn Koll continued her domination of GPAC opponents, earning a 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 10-4 win over Kendra Ritter at No. 1 singles. Koll is now 3-0 this season against the GPAC and 14-3 in conference matches over the last three seasons.

The Doane men fell to 6-6 overall and 1-1 in conference play. The Tiger women are now 7-5 overall and 1-2 in the GPAC.

Both Bulldog tennis teams will take one last dip outside the conference when they get back to action on Friday (4 p.m.) with a men’s and women’s doubleheader at Grand View University (Iowa). The Viking men are 7-9 overall while the women are 8-7.