The Gustavus men’s tennis team knocked off pre-season league favorite Carleton 6-3 in an important MIAC dual match on Saturday afternoon in St. Peter. The Gusties trailed 2-1 after doubles play, but won five of the six singles matches to claim the 6-3 victory. Gustavus improves to 10-7 overall and 5-0 in the MIAC, while Carleton falls to 10-3 overall and 3-1 in league play.
Carleton started off the match strong winning two of the three doubles matches. The Gusties actually took a 1-0 lead when Patrick Clark and Kyle Olson defeated Peter Dunn and Paul Cooper 8-4 at the #2 position. The Knights quickly tied the match at 1-1 when Colin Russell and Austin Jiang defeated Krishan Jethwa and Rodrigo Otero 8-4 at the #3 position. At #1 doubles, Winston Park and Dan Vollman jumped out to a 4-1 lead and led 6-3 when Amrik Donkena and Tyler Johnson rallied to tie the match at 6-6. Park and Vollman closed out the match by winning the next two games to defeat Donkena and Johnson 8-6.
Patrick Clark quickly tied the match at 2-2 when he defeated Winston Park 6-0, 6-0 at #2 singles. The Gusties took a 3-2 lead when Patrick Johnson defeated Dan Vollman 6-2, 6-1 at the #3 position, but Carleton pulled back into a 3-3 tie when Austin Jiang defeated Krishan Jethwa 6-2, 6-1 at the #5 position. Gustavus clinched the victory when Kyle Olson defeated Alexander Chin 6-3, 6-2 at #5 and Daniel Pomeranc knocked off Colin Russell 4-6, 6-1, and 10-4 in the superbreaker. The marquee match of the day was at #1 singles where #6 Amrik Donkena was facing #19 Peter Dunn. Donkena won the first set 6-3, but Dunn jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set. Donkena rallied to take a 6-5 lead, but Dunn tied the set at 6-6 forcing a tiebreaker. Donkena won the tiebreaker 7-3 to claim the match 6-3, 7-6 and give the Gusties a 6-3 victory over the Knights.
The win extended Gustavus’ MIAC regular season win streak to 228 matches dating back to April of 1985.
The Gusties will hit the road for two matches next week including a conference match at Saint Mary’s on Thursday, April 15 and a non-conference match against Kalamazoo College in Pleasant Valley, Wis. next Sunday, April 18.