O'FALLON, Ill. – The McKendree men's tennis team opened its 2022 spring season here Friday with a win 7-0 sweep over Missouri Baptist University at the St. Clair Tennis Center.
In Friday's match, the Bearcats, who improved to 4-0 on the season, faced the Spartans (0-2) in three doubles and six singles matches.
McKendree would earn the doubles point after earning a win at the No. 3 spot by default and posting a 7-6 (8-6) win at the No. 1 spot from junior
Leonardo Frederico (Tijucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/UniCesumar) and graduate student
Boriss Kamdem (Ghent, Beligium/University of Tulsa) over MBU's tandem of Milos Vuckovic and Dragan Omicikus.
MBU would prevent a sweep in doubles by the Bearcats as their No. 2 team of Filip Petrovic and Timofey Tokmakov picked up an 8-3 win over McKendree's No. 2 team of sophomore
Julappagari Anurag Reddy (Dubai, UAE/CBSE School Nationals) and freshman
David Leon Mantilla (Lima, Peru/ Colegio Parroquial Santa Rosa de Lima).
McKendree would carry its hot play in doubles into singles action as the Bearcats won all six of the singles matches, including Mantilla earning a win at the No. 6 spot by default.
"I'm very proud of everyone. The energy was incredible today and we are going to continue working hard everyday and keep moving forward," said Frederico, who is one of the team's captains this season.
The Bearcats second win in singles came at the No. 5 spot as junior
Lorenzo del Biondo (Pescora, Italy/Abraham Baldwin) picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win over Donald Feick.
Kamdem would give McKendree a 4-0 lead in the match following his 6-3, 6-1 win over Tokmakov at the No. 3 singles spot.
Paramasivan would make it 4-0 in favor of the Bearcats following his 7-5, 6-1 win at No. 2 singles over Omicikus.
The fifth win in singles came from Frederico, who is ranked seventh in the Oracle/ITA Division II Midwest Region singles, improved to 5-2 on the season in singles following his third-set tiebreaking win at the No. 1 spot over Vuckovic. Frederico won the first set, 6-3, before Vuckovic won the second set, 6-4 to force a tiebreaking third set. In the third set, Frederico won post a 10-6 win to earn the victory.
Sophomore
Nanase Ebisu (Osaka, Japan/Hawai'i Pacific) would cap the sweep for the Bearcats as he won in a third-set tiebreaker at the No. 4 spot over Petrovic. Ebisu dropped the third set, 6-4, before winning the second set 7-5 to set up a third set tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Ebisu won 10-2 to pick up the victory.
The Bearcats will return to action next Friday, Feb. 18 as that face UMSL in a 2 p.m. match at the St. Clair Tennis Center in O'Fallon, Ill.
