SEWARD, Neb. – Things have come together at the right time for Concordia University Men’s Tennis, which remains unbeaten in conference play after knocking off Northwestern, 6-1, on Saturday (April 2) afternoon. Doubles play continues to be a strength as the Bulldogs swept through the Red Raiders and then took five of six singles battles. Eduardo Luzzi and Joe Bindl came away with wins in both doubles and singles.
Head Coach Cam Long’s squad effectively pushed the win streak to four and is now 3-0 in league play (6-6) overall. Over the past three days, Concordia has earned wins by respective scores of 6-1, 7-0 and 6-1.
“Doubles is definitely our strong suit,” Long said. “We have a lot of good servers on our team and a lot of players who are good at the net. We make it work with what we have. We’re a very smart doubles team that doesn’t beat itself. We keep the ball in play and make our opponents beat us. It’s really nice to be able to take that point in a lot of matches. I was very impressed with Isaac Howes and Shawn Springer in singles. Shawn served really well and played well in general. Isaac played that same opponent in the fall and he knew what it took to win. There were good performances up and down the singles lineup.”
A couple days ago, the Bulldogs won all three doubles matches by 6-0 scores at Mount Marty. This time around, Concordia’s winning combinations were Luzzi and Juan Rabellino at No. 1 (6-3), Bindl and Jeremiah Berryman at No. 2 (6-4) and Eduardo Rojas and Jack Kitson at No. 3 (6-2). Through three GPAC outings, the group has combined to go 8-1 in doubles matches.
The only defeat for the Bulldogs came at No. 4 singles. The rest of the lineup came out on top. Winning singles performances were turned in by Luzzi at No. 1 (6-4, 6-3), Howes at No. 2 (6-3, 6-2), Springer at No. 3 (7-6, 7-5), Bindl at No. 5 (6-3, 6-2) and Rabellino at No. 6 (6-3, 6-0). Rabellino is now a spotless 3-0 in GPAC singles matches while Luzzi is 2-0 versus conference foes.
Dating back to last season, Concordia is 8-1 in its last nine GPAC regular season matches. Meanwhile, the Red Raiders slipped to 7-5 overall (0-2 GPAC). Northwestern was defeated at Midland, 7-0, on Friday.
The Bulldogs will be on the road for their next match as they look forward to playing at Hastings (3-5, 1-0 GPAC) at 3 p.m. CT on Wednesday. Concordia hopes to duplicate last season’s result, which was a 6-1 decision in favor of the Bulldogs in a match played in Seward.