Patrick Clark hits an overhead for a winner against Hamline.
The Gustavus men’s tennis team opened up its 2011 home schedule with convincing wins over Hamline (9-0) and Minnesota State, Mankato (9-0) at the Swanson Tennis Center on Saturday. Coach Tommy Valentini’s squad, which dropped only two sets in the 12 singles matches during the day, improved to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in MIAC play.
Against Hamline, the Gusties opened conference play with a solid win over the Pipers. The match of the day turned out to be at #1 singles where Amrik Donkena locked up in a tight match with David Croonquist. Donkena won the first set 6-2 and led 5-4 in the second set before Croonquist rallied to claim the second set 7-6 winning the tiebreaker 7-5. Donkena won the third set superbreaker 10-7 to claim the win at #1 singles. The Gusties won the other five singles matches in straight sets including Patrick Clark at #2 (6-1, 7-5), Tyler Johnson at #3 (6-2, 6-2), Juan Luis Chu at #4 (6-0, 6-1), Daniel Pomeranc at #5 (6-0, 6-0), and Joe MacGibbon at #6 (6-0, 6-0). Gustavus also claimed all three doubles matches to post the 9-0 victory.
Bryan Miles picked up a win at #1 singles against MSU, Mankato.
Against MSU, Mankato, Head Coach Tommy Valentini used 12 different players in the 9-0 win over the Mavericks. The Gusties opened the match with three doubles victories including Amrik Donkena and Patrick Clark posting an 8-5 win at #1, followed by Tyler Johnson and Joe MacGibbon winning 8-2 at #2, and Daniel Pomeranc and Juan Luis Chu claiming an 8-2 win at #3.
In singles play, Bryan Miles defeated Mitch Barr at the #1 position 6-2, 6-2, while Grant Leisner defeated Marco Vazquez 6-2, 6-0 at the #2 position. The #3 singles match turned out to be quite a battle at Brooks Stapleton outdueled Cole Jensen 6-2, 4-6, 10-5. The Gusties closed out the match with three straight victories as Michael Lieberman defeated Jon Alland 6-2, 6-0 at #4, Logan Peterson defeated Mike Lindaman 6-1, 6-0 at #5, and Sean Golden defeated Matt Jameson 6-3, 6-1 at #6.