LEBANON, Ill. – The McKendree University men's tennis team opened Great Lakes Valley Conference play here Saturday afternoon by posting a hard-fought 7-0 victory over Illinois-Springfield at the McKendree Tennis Courts on the McKendree campus.
With the victory, the 42nd-ranked Bearcats won its fourth consecutive match and improved to 11-1 overall and 1-0 in the GLVC, while UIS fell to 6-6 overall and 0-1 in the league.
"We won the doubles point by playing aggressive, setting the tone for singles," McKendree men's tennis head coach René Vidal said following the win. "It's a solid win and good start to conference play for Bearcat Tennis."
In Saturday's match, which came less than 24 hours after the Bearcats picked up the program's first-ever win over Washington University in St. Louis as the Bearcats picked up a 5-4 win over the No. 4 ranked Bears, the Bearcats opened by taking the doubles point after winning two of the three matches.
McKendree opened doubles play with a 6-1 win by sophomore
Subash Paramasivan (Chennai, India/Saraswathi Kendra) and senior
Vishnu Prasad (Chennai, India/National Institute of Open Schooling) at the No. 3 spot.
The Bearcats No. 2 team of junior
Lorenzo del Biondo (Pescora, Italy/Abraham Baldwin College) and freshman
David Leon Mantilla (Lima, Peru/Colegio Parroquial Santa Rosa de Lima) fell 6-2 to UIS' tandem of Nick Revin and Oscar Toro.
McKendree, though, would clinch the doubles point with a win at the No. 1 spot in the line-up from junior
Leonardo Frederico (Tujucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/UniCesumar) and graduate student
Boriss Kamdem (Ghent, Beligium/University of Tulsa), who are ranked 36th in Division II doubles, 7-6 (7-4) over UIS' No. 1 team of Sebastian Jonsson and Ivan Esguerra.
Following doubles action, both teams turned their focus to singles play as the Bearcats would win all six of the single matches for the third time this season.
The wins in singles were not easy on Saturday as three of the singles matches were decided by third-set tiebreakers.
Kamdem, who is ranked 58th in the latest ITA Division II single player rankings, got the singles scoring for the Bearcats as he earned a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 win at the No. 2 spot over Revin. Kamdem is now 11-3 on the season in singles.
Frederico, who is ranked 74th in the latest ITA Division II single player rankings, would give the Bearcats a 3-0 lead in the match with his 6-4, 6-4 win over Tomas Martinez. With his win, Frederico improved to 12-4 on the season and won his fourth consecutive singles match.
Paramasivan clinched the match for the Bearcats with his hard-fought 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 win at the No. 3 spot over Rafa Rojas. Paramasivan improved his singles record to 8-4 on the season.
Sophomore
Julappagari Anurag Reddy (Dubai, UAE/CBSE School Nationals) picked up a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win at the No. 4 spot over Jonsson to give the Bearcats its fourth singles win.
The fifth point in singles for the Bearcats came from Prasad at the No. 6 spot as he posted a 6-1, 6-1 win over Matthew Lapsley.
Mantilla would earn the Bearcats sixth and final singles as he posted 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 10-7 win at the No. 5 spot over Zubin Omar. Mantilla improved his record to 7-3 on the season in singles.
The Bearcats will play its third match in a span of three days on Sunday, April 3 as they host Webster University for a 1 p.m. match on Alumni Day at Triad High School in Troy, Ill.
