SEWARD, Neb. – An opportunity to knock off the opponent that ended its 2022 season presented itself on Thursday (April 6) evening as the Concordia University Men’s Tennis team hosted Doane underneath sunny skies. As the GPAC’s second-rated team, the Tigers walked away from the Bulldog Tennis courts with a 6-1 victory. In the very last match to go final, the Bulldogs avoided the shutout thanks to Thomas Van Haaren’s triumph at No. 6 singles.
Head Coach Cam Long’s squad slipped to 1-2 in conference play (7-7 overall) heading into a break in the action.
“I thought we played well actually,” Long said. “Doubles maybe not quite as much. I think our mentality was good. We were present and we were focused. In doubles, I don’t think we played our best. We will get back to work on it. In singles, I thought we played pretty well. Hugo (Fuentes) had a close match at No. 1 against the top player in the conference and Thomas won his match at six. There were also several close matches. Some of them just didn’t go our way.”
Doane picked up the first team point by sweeping its way through doubles, winning by respective scores of 6-0, 6-2 and 6-4. The combos for Concordia were made up of Van Haaren and Juan Rabellino at No. 1, Fuentes and Shawn Springer at No. 2 and Santiago Abadia and Eduardo Rojas at No. 3.
Those results left little margin for error in singles. The Australian Van Haaren turned away Donat Beke, 6-3, 6-3, as all players on both teams looked on. Earlier in the evening, the Tigers clinched the team victory by winning at the Nos. 5, 3 and 4 singles positions. The battle at No. 5 went to a third set as Doane’s Diego Infante defeated Springer, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. Notably, the Bulldogs’ Manuel Rodriguez had his singles win streak snapped at eight when he was beaten at No. 4, 6-1, 7-5. Concordia’s singles lineup also included Fuentes at No. 1, Abadia at No. 2 and Rojas at No. 3. Fuentes was edged in a first-set tiebreaker and lost, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Said Long, “Hopefully we can build some momentum next week and learn from the points we lost. We were that close. It just comes down to the critical points – finishing games and finishing sets.”
Doane (7-11, 3-0 GPAC) remains unbeaten in GPAC play having also defeated Mount Marty and Northwestern. The Tigers have won each of the past three series matchups over Concordia.
The Bulldogs will take the Easter weekend off from competition and will regroup next week with an April 12 home match versus Grand View University (Iowa). First serve from the Bulldog Tennis Courts is set for 2:30 p.m. CT. Concordia will attempt to avenge the 4-3 defeat it endured at the hands of the Vikings last season in Des Moines, Iowa.