TROY, Ill. – The McKendree University men's tennis team picked up its fifth consecutive victory here Sunday afternoon as the 42nd-ranked Bearcats picked up a 6-1 win on Alumni Day over Webster University at Triad High School.
With the win, McKendree improves to 12-1 overall and 3-0 on the weekend, while Webster falls to 8-8 on the season.
Sunday's match was the third in three days this weekend for the Bearcats as they opened the weekend with a 5-4 win on Friday at Division III No. 4 ranked WashU, before picking up a 7-0 win on Saturday in its Great Lakes Valley Conference opener at home against Illinois-Springfield.
The Bearcats played Sunday's match without its top six players and turned to their back-ups to pick up the win and the back-ups didn't disappoint as they stepped up and swept all six singles matches after losing two of the three doubles matches against the Gorloks.
In Sunday's match, the team began with doubles as the only win the Bearcats secured in doubles came at the No. 1 spot as junior
Carlos Etty (Eindhoven, Netherlands/Luzac College Eindhoven) teamed with freshman
Alex Pinkston (Newburgh, Ind./IU-East) to post a 6-3 win over Riley Muren and Matthew Birchmeier.
The Gorloks, though, would earn the doubles point thanks to its wins at both the No. 2 and No. 3 spots in the line-up. At the No. 2 spot, sophomore
Diego Castillo Samperio (Guadalajara, Mexico/Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey) and
Fabian Martinez Camargo (Bogota, Colombia/Colegio Agustiniano Ciudad Salitre) fell 6-1 to Tanner Haugen and Carson Fisher, while sophomore
Garrett Brunner (Pontiac, Ill./Pontiac Township) and sophomore
Nathan Thompson (Nassau, Bahamas/The Webb School) fell 6-3 at the No. 3 spot to Aaron Demarco and Chase Boushard.
Trailing 1-0 in the match following doubles, the Bearcats would turn their focus to singles and in singles, McKendree won win all six matches and lose a total of 29 games over the six matches.
The Bearcats first singles win came at the No. 4 spot as Samperio would post a 6-0, 6-1 win over Haugen to tie the match at 1-all.
Sophomore
Charlie Sanzo (Bristol, England/Fullerton College) would pick up a win at No. 2 singles to give the Bearcats a 2-1 lead in the match. Sanzo defeated Fisher, 6-2, 6-2.
Etty would earn the third singles win for the Bearcats as he picked up a 6-3, 6-2 win at the No. 3 spot over Birchmeier.
Pinkston gave the Bearcats a 4-1 lead in the match following his 6-1, 6-0 win at the No. 5 spot over Demarco. Pinkston was making his McKendree debut on Sunday as he was added to the roster at the start of the second semester after he played the first semester at IU-East.
Junior
Ryan Fung (Miami, Fla./Palmetto Senior High) would pick up a win at No. 1 singles to give the Bearcats a 5-1 lead in the match. At the No. 1 spot, Fung, who improved to 5-0 on the season in singles on the season, picked up an impressive win over Muren, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4. Muren is Webster's all-time career leader in singles wins.
The sixth and final win in singles for the Bearcats came at the No. 6 spot in the line-up as Camargo picked up a 6-1, 6-3 win over Andrew McDonald.
Carmago, Samperio, Etty, Pinkston and Sanzo were all playing their first matches of the season for the Bearcats.
McKendree will look to win its sixth consecutive match next Friday, April 8 as they host eighth-ranked Indianapolis for a 2 p.m. Great Lakes Valley Conference match at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville, Ill.
