PELLA, Iowa – It was anyone’s ballgame on Tuesday (March 21) as the Concordia University Men’s Tennis squad battled to the finish with NCAA Division III Central College. The team decision ultimately came down to the No. 6 singles position, where the Bulldogs’ Manuel Rodriguez outlasted his counterpart. Concordia eked out the victory, 5-4, in Pella, Iowa, home to the Dutch. In a shift from the norm for the Bulldogs, all three doubles matches counted in the team scoring (per NCAA D-III rules).
Head Coach Cam Long’s squad has gone 4-0 in the month of March while improving to 6-5 overall. As Long noted, “Shawn (Springer) and Manuel were tough at the end to get through their matches and put this in the win column for the team.”
After taking a 2-1 lead at the conclusion of doubles, Concordia needed to find a way to split the six singles clashes. Based on the order that matches went final, Central never trailed by more than one point in the team scoring. It was 4-4 after the Dutch’s Ayden Fletcher triumphed at No. 4. That put the pressure on Rodriguez at No. 6. He came through in the clutch, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 1-0 (7) over Matthew Den Adel. Other singles winners for the Bulldogs were Santiago Abadia at No. 2, 6-1, 6-1, and Springer at No. 4, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 1-0 (7), in another razor thin margin. In the remaining singles matches, Hugo Fuentes at No. 1, Eduardo Rojas at No. 2 and Juan Rabellino at No. 3 came up short. Rodriguez owns a sparkling 8-2 singles mark in 2023.
Concordia took the upper hand in doubles thanks to the combinations of Fuentes and Rabellino at No. 1 (8-4) and Rojas and Abadia at No. 3 (8-4). In other words, the Bogotá, Colombia, native Abadia enjoyed a 2-0. At the No. 2 doubles spot, Central took an 8-6 decision over Springer and Thomas Van Haaren. Even under the NAIA rules that award one total team point for doubles, the Bulldogs would have managed a 4-3 triumph.
Central slipped to 4-7 on the season. The Dutch compete as a member of the American Rivers Conference. Central did manage to close the gap a bit compared to last season’s 7-0 loss endured in Seward.
The start of conference play is up next. The Bulldogs will welcome Hastings (1-6, 0-0 GPAC) to Seward for an 11 a.m. CT first serve on Saturday. Concordia will attempt to duplicate its 5-2 road win over the Broncos in 2022.