The Gustavus men’s tennis team saw its season come to an end after suffering a 5-3 loss to Washington University in the NCAA quarterfinal round on Tuesday morning. The NCAA Championship is being hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. The Gusties finish the season at 27-9, while the Bears improved to 22-2.
Gustavus trailed 2-0 early in doubles play as Washington’s Max Woods and Isaac Stein defeated Charlie Paukert and Ben Tomasek 8-3 at the #2 spot and John Watts and Nirmal Choradia defeated Nick Hansen and Kevin Stickney 8-5 at #3 doubles. The Gusties tallied their first point of the match when Mike Burdakin and John Kauss defeated Charlie Cutler and Chris Hoeland 8-5 at the #1 position.
The Bears went ahead 4-1 after Chris Hoeland defeated Patrick Clark 6-2, 6-4 at #6 singles and Danny Levy defeated Kevin Stickney 7-6, 6-3 at #5 singles. Gustavus pulled to within 4-3 after winning the next two singles matches. Mike Burdakin defeated Charlie Cutler 7-6, 6-2 at the #2 spot, while Charlie Paukert defeated Max Woods 6-2, 6-4 at the #3 position. However, Washington tallied the deciding point at #4 singles when Isaac Stein defeated Ben Tomasek 6-3, 6-3. John Kauss dropped the first set against John Watts 7-5 at #1 singles before winning the second set 6-1 when the match was abandoned.
John Kauss will compete in the singles tournament which begins on Friday, and he will team with Mike Burdakin to take part in doubles tournament which also begins on Friday.