ST. CHARLES, Mo. – The nationally 45th-ranked McKendree men's tennis team extended its win streak to four straight matches here Friday as the Bearcats picked up a hard-fought 4-3 victory over Lindenwood in Great Lakes Valley Conference action at the Lindenwood Tennis Courts.
With the win, the Bearcats improve to 16-2 overall and 6-1 in the GLVC, while Lindenwood fell to 6-6 overall and 2-4 in the league.
The Bearcats, who are ranked fourth in the latest NCAA Division II Midwest Regional rankings, will conclude the regular season with an 11 a.m. match on Saturday, April 23 against Maryville at Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC) in Belleville, Ill.
Friday's match began with doubles play and for the 12th time this season, the Bearcats lost the doubles points as the Lions won two of the matches to earn the point and take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The match began with McKendree's No. 3 team of sophomore
Julappagari Anurag Reddy (Dubai, UAE/CBSE School Nationals) and junior
Lorenzo del Biondo (Pescora, Italy/Abraham Baldwin College) won 6-0 over Lindenwood's duo of Mattis Lamm and Juan Balbin.
Lindenwood would then pick up a win at No. 2 doubles as Rodrigo Rattes and Anton de la Puente defeated McKendree's No. 2 team of sophomore
Subash Paramasivan (Chennai, India/Saraswathi Kendra) and senior
Vishnu Prasad (Chennai, India/National Institute of Open Schooling), 6-3.
The Lions would then seal the doubles point with an upset of McKendree's nationally 32nd-ranked No. 1 singles team of junior junior
Leonardo Frederico (Tujucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/UniCesumar) and graduate student
Boriss Kamdem (Ghent, Beligium/University of Tulsa), 7-6 (7-5). The loss was the second straight for Frederico and Kamdem in doubles as they are now 15-4 on the season.
Following doubles, the teams turned their focus to singles and in singles, the Bearcats would win four of the six matches to post the victory against the Lions.
Lindenwood would take a 2-0 lead in the match following a win at the No. 4 singles spot by de la Puente as defeated Reddy in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Reddy fell to 14-4 on the season with the loss.
The Lions would take a 3-0 lead in the match as Diaz would collect an upset win over nationally 45th-ranked Kamdem as Kamdem fell 6-4, 6-4 for his fifth loss of the season as he is now 14-5 on the season.
Trailing 3-0 in the match, the Bearcats would finally win its first point at the No. 3 spot as Paramasivan posted a 6-4, 6-4 win over Guillaume Teste to pull the Bearcats within 3-1 in the match. Paramasivan improved to 11-6 on the season and has now won three straight matches.
Frederico, who is ranked 58th in singles in the latest ITA Tennis single player rankings, ran his winning streak to nine straight matches following his 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Juan Pablo Herrera. Frederico moved his record to 17-4 on the season in singles and gave the Bearcats their second point.
Prasad would collect a win by identical scores (6-0, 6-0) at the No. 5 spot over Balbin to tie the match at 3-all. Prasad has won five straight matches and is 7-1 in singles on the year.
With Prasad's win at No. 5 singles, Friday's match came down to No. 6 singles as freshman
David Leon Mantilla (Lima, Peru/Colegio Parroquial Santa Rosa de Lima) faced Ignacio Mercado to decide the match winner. In No. 6 singles, Mantilla would pick up a 6-2, 6-4 win to give the Bearcats their fourth point and the match victory.
