Husky men's tennis falls to Illinois Springfield and Lewis

Huskies fall 7-0 to Illinois Springfield and 5-2 to Lewis University in first matches in nearly a year.

CHATFIELD, Ill. – Michigan Tech was shutout 7-0 by Illinois Springfield in the season opener for men's tennis at Velasco Tennis Center (outdoor). The Prairie Stars swept doubles play, then took all six singles matches without dropping a set. It was the first counting match for the Huskies since March 12 of 2020.

"We were really excited to finally get back out there for matches," said head coach Kristin Yep. "We fought hard but weren't equipped to deal with the elements of outdoor tennis. We have four more matches this week so we will look to improve as we go."

The first match to finish was No. 3 doubles where Nacho Carbajosa and Ricardo Nunez fell to Oscar Toro and Alex Chan 6-2. Nico Caviglia and Ambarish Rao also lost 6-1 at No. 1 doubles. Siddhesh Mahadeshwar and Eli Pinnoo fared slightly better at No. 2 with a 7-5 set loss to Matthew Lapsley and Nick Revin.

Nikolai Gonzalez played No. 1 singles for the Huskies but was beat in straight sets by Menno Servaes 6-0, 6-2. Nunez lost 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2 and Pinnoo fell 6-2, 6-0 at No. 3. Rafa Rojas dropped just one game to MTU's Nico Caviglia at No. 4 singles. Mahadeshwar competed hard at No. 5 but lost 6-3, 6-4. Ambarish Rao lost to Matthew Lapsley 6-3, 6-2 at No. 6. The Huskies fell to 0-1.

PLAINFIELD, Ill. – The Huskies picked up a pair of wins in singles but the top of the lineup for Lewis was too strong as Tech fell 5-2 to Lewis University Monday morning. The Flyers stole the team doubles points with 6-3 and 6-2 set wins at No. 3 and No. 2 doubles respectively. Siddhesh Mahadeshwar and Eli Pinnoo forced a tiebreak but fell 7-6 (4). Ricardo Nunez was blanked at No. 2 singles by Lewis's Oskar Lusti and Pinnoo mustered just two games against David Ambrozic at No. 3. The Flyers clinched the match at No. 1 singles when Juan Ramirez Mejia defeated Nikolai Gonzalez 7-6 (0), 6-2.

"Lewis has a solid team and they were able to take control of points earlier than we did," Yep said. "It was a matter of a few deciding points here and there in a few matches that ended up making a big difference in momentum."

Mahadeshwar picked up his first win of the season 6-4, 6-0 at No. 5 singles over Daniel Sowa. Rao also won in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 against Jonathan Maghiring.

Michigan Tech (0-2) men's tennis continues its eight match road trip at Tiffin University Wednesday, March 10 at 10 a.m.