SEWARD, Neb. – The spring portion of the 2022-23 season for Concordia University Men’s Tennis got underway on Monday (Feb. 13) afternoon as the Bulldogs hosted Barton Community College inside the Walz Fieldhouse. Concordia took two team points thanks to a pair of singles wins but fell short in a 5-2 loss at the hands of the Cougars, who are located in Great Bend, Kan. Barton swept through doubles and won four singles decisions.
Head Coach Cam Long’s squad stands at 1-3 overall with three of the matches having taken place back in the fall. The Bulldogs were scheduled to play this past Saturday, but the matchup with Grand View University (Iowa) was postponed until a date to be determined.
Said Long, “I thought we competed very well and gave ourselves a good place to start the season at. Doubles wasn’t our best, but we still battled in singles and got a couple points. We can use that as momentum for the future.”
Lineup depth will make Concordia tough to beat in the back half of singles play. The Bulldogs got on the board via close wins notched by Hugo Fuentes at No. 4 and Juan Rabellino at No. 6. Fuentes won by a score of 7-6 (0), 5-7, 14-12 (10-point tiebreaker), while Rabellino got past his opponent, 6-4, 7-6 (5). The remainder of the Bulldog lineup included Eduardo Rojas at No. 1, Shawn Springer at No. 2, Santiago Abadia at No. 3 and Manuel Rodriguez at No. 5. The closest battle among those matches was the 6-3, 6-2, defeat endured by Abadia.
While Barton won relatively comfortably at the Nos. 1 and 3 doubles spots (6-2 scores for both), Concordia was narrowly edged at No. 2. At that spot, the combo of Shawn Springer and Thomas Van Haaren was edged, 7-6 (4), by the duo of Barnabas Kalaba and Prince Tsiang. The other doubles partners for the Bulldogs were Fuentes and Rabellino at No. 1 and Abadia and Rojas at No. 3.
The Bulldogs will return to action on Saturday for a 1:45 p.m. CT matchup with Pratt Community College. The contest will be held at Genesis Health Club in Lincoln, Neb. Concordia has nine more nonconference matches slated before GPAC play gets underway on March 25.