GRAND FORKS, N.D. - After playing five exhibition matches in Florida earlier in the week, the Gustavus men's tennis team traveled to the University of North Dakota on Saturday and dropped a close 4-3 decision against the Division I Fighting Hawks.
The Gusties had a strong showing in doubles play as
Marco Siviero and
Josh Christensen picked up a 7-5 win at the No. 1 spot, while
Gage Gohl and
Tyler Haddorff won 7-6 at No. 2. Playing in the Division I format, doubles count as just one point between the three matches.
The Gusties earned two victories in singles as
Dominik Knutson won 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 at No. 5 and
Jack Bergmeyer won in straight sets 6-1, 7-5 at No. 6.
"The boys competed very well today," Head Coach
Tommy Valentini said. "For us to establish ourselves in terms of how we want to handle tough situations, we got off to a very strong start. In the doubles it took us a bit to find our game, but we stuck to our plan and showed a lot of courage to stay the course. Marco and Josh were excellent down the stretch in their match and Gage and Tyler played a fantastic end of their set to get us the double point. In the singles we came out with good energy and showed a lot of poise throughout the entire match. Jack made some great adjustments and handled the right moments well in his second sets to get us on the board. Marco, Rafa, and Gage all played well for good stretches of their matches but came up just short today. Dominik showed some big-time maturity for a first-year in his singles debut to defeat a quality opponent in a tough third set. We were grateful to have Josh as our last match on with the dual tied 3-3. He stormed back from 1-4 in the third to get to level, but got a few tough bounces and didn't quite get over the line today. That being said, he was a warrior out there and competed beautifully. This was a good start for us and we'll look forward to getting home and to some rest before another set of big challenges next week."
Gustavus will host UW-Eau Claire at 8:30 a.m. and Creighton University at noon next Saturday.
