By: After more than a month away from action due to weather, the Blueboys split a pair of home Midwest Conference matches on Saturday.
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's tennis team finally was able to return to action on Saturday, opening Midwest Conference play by winning one of two matches against Ripon College and Lake Forest College. The Blueboys defeated the Red Hawks, 6-3, in the morning match, before falling to conference power Lake Forest by a score of 9-0 in the afternoon. The Blueboys are now 1-5 (1-1 MWC) on the season.
A year ago, an Illinois College win over Ripon was the first MWC win for the Blueboy program since 2005. On Saturday, IC made it two wins in a row over the Red Hawks with a 6-3 victory. The Blueboys took a 2-1 lead after doubles. Both the No. 1 team of
Miguel Vaca and
Michael Connolly, and the No. 2 team of
Nazar Otunchiev and
Rolando Salazar were 8-1 victors.
Salazar quickly upped IC's lead to 3-1 after a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 2 singles over Jacob Kramer. Within moments of each other, Vaca won his No. 1 singles match (6-1, 6-4) over Lincoln Wurtz and Connolly won his No. 4 singles match (6-0, 6-2) over Ben Ermatinger to seal the victory. Otunchiev later added a win at No. 3 over Junmo Kwon, 6-2, 6-0.
The Blueboys couldn't replicate their morning success in the afternoon. Lake Forest swept doubles for a 3-0 lead. Vaca and Connolly had the best showing at No. 1, falling 8-3. In singles, the Foresters won five of the six matches in straight sets. Vaca battled to the very end at No. 1 singles against Dan Pivonka, the defending No. 1 singles champion in the MWC. Vaca took the first set over Pivonka in a tiebreaker, winning 7-6(1). From there, Pivonka came back for a 6-1 win in the second set. In a third-set tiebreak, Pivonka held on for an 11-9 victory.
Conference play continues at home for Illinois College on April 5 when the Blueboys host Knox College at 5 p.m. Students are encouraged to attend and cheer on the men's tennis team. Pizza will be available for free at the match.
