Kansas City
Oral Roberts
ORU Edges UMKC, 4-3, In A Battle Of League Unbeatens
4/9/2009 7:30:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Fort Wayne, Ind. -- The UMKC men's tennis team dropped a heart breaking, 4-3, decision to Oral Roberts in a battle of league unbeatens on Thursday afternoon at The Summit League Cluster in Fort Wayne, Ind. The Kangaroos jumped out to a 1-0 lead after taking the doubles point, but the Golden Eagles won four-of-six singles matches to win the match and take sole possession of first place in the league standings.
The 'Roos started the day strong by taking the doubles point courtesy of a pair of 8-4 wins at the one and three lines. Bret Berryman and Patrick Smith picked up an 8-4 win over Oleksandr Kotsuik and Dmitry Suslov at the No. 1 position. Serge Ristivojevic and Gustavo Guerin then followed with an identical 8-4 victory at No. 3 over Dario Beslic and Peter Sullivan. The match was Ristivojevic's first match in over a month, as he was sidelined with pneumonia.
Once the play turned to singles, ORU grabbed the advantage with straight set wins at the one and four positions. Kotsuik knocked off Berryman, 6-3, 6-1, at the one line and Beslic dropped Ristivojevic, 6-0, 6-3, at the four position.
UMKC regained control, however, as Smith and Quintanilla picked up straight set victories of their own. Smith defeated Suslov, 6-4, 6-0, at the No. 2 position, while Quintanilla was victorious over Sullivan, 6-2, 6-2, at the six line.
The Golden Eagles then evened up the tally at three all with Savin's tight two-set win over Schwarz at the five position. The ORU freshman won a 7-6 (4) decision in the first set before taking the match with a 7-5 win in set two.
All eyes then focused on the three line, where Guerin, a true freshman, was in a three-set battle with Dargel, a senior. Dargel made quick work of Guerin in the first set by claiming a 6-0 victory, but the Brazil native battled back to even the match at a set apiece with a 6-3 win in set two. The two players then battled until the end in the third and final set before Dargel edged out Guerin for a tiebreaker win, 7-6 (6).
UMKC (9-6, 3-1) will return to action tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. (CDT) against South Dakota State.
Players Mentioned
