Men’s Tennis Knocks Off Mount St. Mary’s, 5-2
Paul Marboe
Flash Points:
- SFU Men's Tennis defeated Mount St. Mary's, 5-2, on Saturday.
- The Red Flash dropped the doubles point, but SFU won five singles matches.
- SFU finished the NEC regular season with a 4-1 record.
- The Red Flash concludes the regular season next weekend vs. St. Bonaventure and Duquesne.
WAYNESBORO, Pa. – The Saint Francis Men's Tennis team picked up a big NEC road win on Saturday with a 5-2 victory over Mount St. Mary's. After dropping the doubles point, SFU won five of the six singles matches. The Red Flash improved to 6-11 and finished the NEC regular season with a 4-1 record. Mount St. Mary's fell to 6-11 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
"I'm proud of the way our guys fought today," said Head Coach
Rob Castille. "We dug ourselves a pretty big hole and really had to fight to get back in the match. Mount St. Mary's battled hard and really came after us. They forced us to raise our level of play and our intensity. Our guys responded really well and came away with a big conference win."
At No. 3 doubles, sophomore
Franz Luna (Guatemala City, Guatemala/Laurel Springs) and freshman
Sebastian Pinos (Quito, Ecuador/Compuinformatica) combined against Mount's Evan Hine and Parth Sharma. The Red Flash duo earned a 6-2 win to improve to 10-7 this Spring.
Senior
Alec Dylan Foo-Kune (Phoenix, Mauritius/International Connections Academy (Md.)) and junior
Jan Vit Suntar (Cerklje na Gorenjskem, Slovenia/Gimnazija Kranj) met MSM's Jackson Wood and Brandon Wortkotter. The SFU pair fell 6-4 to move to 2-3 this season.
In the match at No. 2, sophomore
Eduardo Garcia (Toluca, Mexico/Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico) and freshman
Charles Morkel (Cape Town, South Africa/Paul Roos Gymnasium) took on Mount St. Mary's Jean Armstrong and Gabriel Santos, but dropped a 6-3 decision.
"There are still things with doubles we need to address," said Castille. "We're still a little too up and down with our play. We'll continue to work on it these next two weeks."
Foo-Kune faced Mount's Wortkotter at No. 2 singles. The SFU senior claimed a 7-5 win in the first set. He completed the sweep with a 6-2 second set. Foo-Kune is now 10-6 this Spring.
At No. 3, Morkel battled MSM's Sharma. After falling 6-4 in the first set, the Red Flash rookie took the next set, 6-4. In the deciding set, Morkel came out on top, 6-3. That was Morkel's fourth win of the Spring.
Pinos took on Mount St. Mary's Armstrong at No. 4. The SFU freshman won the first set, 6-1. He repeated that performance to win the second set and move to 8-9 in dual matches.
In the match at No. 5, Garcia met Mount's Santos. After dropping the first set, 6-3, Garcia bounced back to win a tough second set, 7-5. In the final super-tiebreaker set, Garcia won a tight set, 11-9. Garcia earned his fourth win this Spring.
At No. 6, Suntar matched up against MSM's Chris Lindsey. The SFU junior claimed the first set, 7-5. He completed the straight set victory with a 6-2 win in the second set. Suntar is now 3-2 in dual matches.
Luna faced Mount's Wood at No. 1, but fell 6-4, 6-4 and is now 8-9 this Spring.
"In singles, a lot of us need to start better," said Castille. "We're getting down too quickly and we're having to battle back way too often. I was pleased with our attitudes today. We weren't getting down on ourselves and we weren't too negative. These are things we've preached all year so it was great to see everyone with a good level of competitiveness and mental toughness. We'll get back at it next week and prepare for our final two matches of the regular season. We're starting to really come together and hopefully we can peak at the conference tournament."
The Red Flash concludes the regular season next weekend with a pair of matches in Pittsburgh. Saint Francis meets St. Bonaventure on Friday, April 13 at 2 p.m. at The Club Sport and Health in Monroeville. SFU takes on Duquesne on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Alpha Tennis and Fitness Center.
Doubles:
1. Wood/Wortkotter(MSM) def. Foo-Kune/Suntar(SFU), 6-4.
2. Armstrong/Santos(MSM) def. Garcia/Morkel(SFU), 6-3.
3. Luna/Pinos(SFU) def. Hine/Sharma(MSM), 6-2.
Order of Finish: 1,3,2
Singles:
1. Wood(MSM) def. Luna(SFU), 6-4, 6-4.
2. Foo-Kune(SFU) def. Wortkotter(MSM), 7-5, 6-2.
3. Morkel(SFU) def. Sharma(MSM), 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
4. Pinos(SFU) def. Armstrong(MSM), 6-1, 6-1.
5. Garcia(SFU) def. Santos(MSM), 3-6, 7-5, 1-0(9).
6. Suntar(SFU) def. Lindsey(MSM), 7-5, 6-2.
Order of Finish: 4,1,2,3,6,5
