ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The 35th-ranked McKendree University men's tennis team opened play here Friday afternoon with a 4-1 win over UMSL in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Great Lakes Valley Conference Men's Tennis Tournament at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center.
With the win, McKendree improved to 18-2 overall on the season and advances to a semifinal match on Saturday, April 30 at 9 a.m. against Maryville University, who upset GLVC West Division champion Drury, 4-3, in another quarterfinal match on Friday. UMSL closes the season with a 4-11 record.
Friday's win was the sixth consecutive for the Bearcats and just the second-ever for McKendree in the GLVC Tournament as McKendree improved 2-8 all-time in the GLVC Tournament. Prior to Friday's win, McKendree's lone previous win in the GLVC Tournament came in the quarterfinals of the 2014 event as the Bearcats defeated UMSL, 5-4.
The two teams opened Friday's match by playing doubles and in doubles the Bearcats got off to a strong start as they won at the No. 1 and No. 2 spot and were leading at the No. 3 spot when the doubles point was decided.
McKendree's nationally 27th-ranked No. 1 doubles team of junior
Leonardo Frederico (Tijucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/Unicesumar) and graduate student
Boriss Kamdem (Ghent, Belgium/University of Tulsa) set the tone for Friday's match as they defeated UMSL's No. 1 team of Marcos Navas and Karl Heinrichs by a score of 6-0.
The Bearcats second win in doubles came from sophomore
Subash Paramasivan (Chennai, Tamil India/Saraswathi Kendra) and Senior
Vishnu Prasad (Chennai, India/National Institute of Open Schooling) at the No. 2 spot as they defeated AJ Bower and Juan Vigil, 6-3.
McKendree's No. 3 team of sophomore
Julappagari Anurag Reddy (Dubai, UAE/CBSE School Nationals) and freshman
David Leon Mantilla (Lima, Peru/Colegio Parroquial Santa Rosa de Lima) was leading their match against Raphael Kerndl and Jose Mayorga when McKendree clinched the doubles point with win at the No. 2 spot.
Meanwhile, in singles play, the Bearcats picked up wins at No. 2, No. 4 and No. 6 singles to earn the match victory and advance to the semifinal round.
Kamdem, who is ranked 54th in Division II singles, gave the Bearcats a 2-0 lead in the match following his 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 2 spot. Kamdem improved to 16-5 on the season in singles play.
Reddy would give the Bearcats a 3-0 lead in the match with his 6-3, 6-2 win at the No. 4 spot over Kerndl. Reedy improved his singles record to 16-4 on the season.
The Tritons, who were the No. 3 seed from the West Division, would score its only point of the match at the No. 3 spot as Mayorga defeated Paramasivan in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (7-0).
Leading 3-1 in the match with three matches (No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6) still on the court playing, the Bearcats were able to end the match after Mantilla collected a 6-1, 6-1 win at the No. 6 spot over Bower.
The other two matches, including Frederico's match at the No. 1 spot, were left unfinished. Frederico, who is ranked 52nd in Division II singles and was named the GLVC Player of the Year earlier in the day on Friday, lost the first set, 7-6, but won the second set, 6-4 and was leading 2-1 when Mantilla sealed McKendree's win. At the No. 5 spot, Prasad has won the first set, 6-4 over Heinrichs, but was trailing 1-0 in the second set.
