Men's Tennis | 4/3/2015 12:33:00 AM
LAWTON, Okla. – The Men's Tennis team made great strides in its path to the postseason as they knocked off Cameron Friday afternoon by a score of 6-3. Cameron is currently ranked second in the region while St. Edward's is sitting in fourth.
St. Edward's and the Aggies started a doubles competition that was close at every turn, and each match could have gone either way. The Hilltoppers would ultimately secure two points, winning at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots.
The No. 1 match featured a couple of regionally ranked doubles pairings in
FELIX BAKE and
RICARDO PINEDA facing Dennis Merdan and Joao Fazendeiro. As expected both sides pushed each other to the limit, but Bake and Pineda would escape with the 8-6 win.
PATRICK CLYNES and
MAXIMO AGOGLIA led the way at the No. 2 position as they took down another regionally ranked team in Felipe Oyarzun and Mateo Velasco 8-5. The Aggies would steal the No. 3 match as Florian Kartner and Andres Velasco escaped the team of
DAVOR IVKOVIC and
SOTIRIS TSIOUMAS in a heated 8-6 contest.
St. Edward's would carry the momentum they seized from the doubles portion of the match by taking four of the singles matches. As usual,
PATRICK CLYNES took care of his No. 1 opponent, in this case Merdan, by a score of 6-0, 6-1.
FELIX BAKE and Oyarzun were the No. 2 match and were proven to be equal nearly every step of the way. Bake would drop the first set 4-6, however he would win the second set 7-6 before defeating him in the tiebreaker set 10-7. At the No. 3 position,
RICARDO PINEDA defeated Fazendeiro by scores of 6-2, 6-4.
MAXIMO AGOGLIA took the point at No. 4 singles as he dispatched Lencioni 6-1, 7-6 to secure the match. Ivkovic would drop his match at No. 5 singles to Velasco 6-1, 6-1 and Tsioumas would lose his No. 6 match in heartbreaking fashion as he fell to Baciu 3-6, 6-3, 10-2.
Head Coach Estevam Strecker spoke with great pride after his team's victory over Cameron. "Today we had probably the most complete match of the season. We did a great job of competing and made the commitment of going to battle for each other."
Strecker explained that his young team is still learning how to win and is developing the chemistry they have been searching for all year. "We are learning to win matches in other ways than simply trying to strike the ball. You can win with fitness, mental toughness and strategy among other ways. We found a way to defeat a strong Cameron team, but we are not satisfied as we will look to turn our attention to the top ranked team in the region tomorrow."
As Strecker implied, St. Edward's will travel to Wichita Falls, Texas and face the number one ranked team in the region, Midwestern State. Tomorrow afternoon's match is set to start at 10:00 a.m. from the MSU Tennis Center.
