The Gustavus men’s tennis team had a busy day on Saturday as it played two matches against Morningside and St. Olaf at the Swanson Tennis Center in St. Peter and Bethel in St. Paul. The Gusties defeated Bethel and the Oles by identical 8-1 scores and Morningside 9-0. Gustavus improved to 11-3 overall and 4-0 in league play.
In the first match of the day, the Gusties only lost 11 games during the three doubles and six singles matches against Morningside. Gustavus took a 3-0 lead into singles play after Ashok and Krishan Jethwa defeated Matt Ford and Jesse Munger, 8-2, at #1 doubles, Ryan Hallsten and Eric Ice defeated Dane Larson and Ian Sondag, 8-2, at #2 doubles, and Theo Roth and Patrick Pisani defeated Troy Weber and Quin Kilgore, 8-1, at the #3 spot.
The Gusties dominated singles play as the closest set during the match was at #1 singles when Ashok Jethwa defeated Matt Ford 6-0, 6-2. Krishan Jethwa and Ryan Hallsten posted wins at the #2 and #3 spots, respectively, with identical 6-1, 6-0 scores. Similarly, Gustavus won the #5 and #6 singles points as Matt Nelson and Josh Knutson were each victorious 6-0, 6-0. Theo Roth closed out the match for the Gusties at the #4 position by defeating Troy Weber 6-1, 6-1.
Against Bethel in a road conference contest, Gustavus won each doubles match with the closest match occurring at #3 doubles as David Koppel and Eric Ice defeated Kent Nichols and Michael Kreklau 8-4. The tightest matches in singles play were at #2 and #5 singles. Charlie Paukert defeated David Torres 6-4, 6-4 at the #2 spot, while the Royals picked up their lone point at the #5 position as Kent Nichols defeated David Koppel 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.
Back in St. Peter, the Gusties picked up two of three doubles points as Kevin Stickney and Nick Hansen defeated Ian Pray and Knute Gundersen, 8-4, at the top spot and Daniel Pomeranc and Patrick Clark defeated John Wight and Will Mitchell, 8-4, at #3 doubles. St. Olaf received its only point at #2 doubles where Brian Tolly and David Narvaez defeated Ashok and Krishan Jethwa 8-3.
Singles play was extremely competitive as two matches were forced into third set tiebreakers. At #4 singles, Daniel Pomeranc dropped a tight first set to Brian Tolly 7-6 (7-3), but responded by winning the second set 6-1. Pomeranc prevailed in the third set tiebreaker 10-5. A similar situation occurred at #5 singles between Gustavus’ Nick Hansen and Bethel’s John Wight. Hansen evened the match at a set apiece as he lost the first set 7-6 (7-5) and won the second set 6-1. In the decisive third set, Hansen won handily at 10-2. The Gusties picked up its remaining straight set wins from Kevin Stickney at #1, Patrick Clark at #2, Ashok Jethwa at #3, and Peter Wright at #6.
Gustavus will travel to Division I Drake University on Sunday for a 2 p.m. match.