By: On a night when the Blueboys beat the Fighting Scots for the first time in 15 years, Miguel Vaca became the all-time program leader in singles wins, and he and Michael Connolly became the all-time best pair in doubles wins.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's tennis team made Tuesday a night to remember, defeating Monmouth College for the first time since 2003. The 6-3 win by the Blueboys was highlighted by a singles win from
Miguel Vaca as well as a doubles win from Vaca and
Michael Connolly, making them the winningest player and doubles pair in program history. The Blueboys improve to 6-5 (2-1 Midwest Conference), matching the six wins claimed by the 2006 squad. The last time IC had seven wins in a season came in 1998.
Illinois College jumped ahead with a 3-0 lead in doubles.
Cameron Doerr and
Rolando Salazar had the easiest time of it, winning their match at No. 2 by a score of 8-5. At No. 3,
Nazar Otunchiev and
Jacob McQueen ground out a 9-7 victory. Vaca and Connolly won their historic match in dramatic fashion, downing Landon Walker and Dylan Wong, 9-8(8), to give the Blueboys a big cushion to start singles play.
That lead would come in handy. Though Doerr pushed IC's lead further with a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles, Monmouth began to come back with straight-set victories at Nos. 2, 3, and 6 over Otunchiev, Connolly and McQueen. The match was clinched for the Blueboys when Vaca put the finishing touches on his 6-4, 6-2 win over Walker at No. 1. Salazar ended the night with a gritty 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 triumph at No. 5 over Alex Martin.
The Blueboys, winless three seasons ago, find themselves in third place in the MWC at the moment and will try to further maneuver up the conference standings tomorrow with a match at Knox College starting at 4:30 p.m.
