SAINT PETER, WINONA, Minn. - The Gustavus men's tennis team competed as a split squad on Saturday and came away with three shutout victories. The No. 12-ranked Gusties defeated Bethel and No. 36 Grinnell at the Swanson Tennis Center and beat Saint Mary's on the road, improving to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the MIAC. 

"The guys put together a solid team effort all day," Head Coach Tommy Valentini said. "We played well against Bethel from top to bottom to get the day rolling. Against Saint Mary's, we brought great energy in the doubles and capitalized on that momentum in the singles. It was great to see Joe hang in there at six and score a great singles win for us. Against Grinnell, we came out flying in the doubles and executed our game plan nicely. Rafa and Caleb played very well in the close moments at number three to get us the sweep. Grinnell played well pushing back to start the singles. We handled the challenge there with good poise and trust and were able to raise our level in the key moments to come through against a very quality opponent. We're thankful for a full team effort today. We'll look to recover well and continue to prepare to enjoy a series of fun challenges at national indoors." 

Against Bethel and Grinnell, the Gusties rolled out the same doubles teams at the top two spots with Marco Siviero and Josh Christensen winning both matches at No. 1 and Gage Gohl and Tyler Haddorff winning both at No. 2. Rafael Costa and Caleb Fridinger had the closest doubles match at No. 3 against Grinnell, winning 8-5. 

Costa also had to battle in singles against Grinnell, coming back from a 7-6 first set loss at No. 3 to win 6-4, 10-5 in the last two sets. The only other three-set singles match of the day happened at Saint Mary's as Joseph Li also erased a first set loss, 4-6, coming back to win 6-4, 10-4 at the No. 6 spot. 

Gustavus now prepares for the ITA Division III National Team Indoor Championship, which takes place Friday through Sunday in Nicholasville, Ky. The Gusties, ranked No. 6 in the eight-team tournament, will face No. 3 Emory in the first round at 1 p.m. (CST) Friday. 
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