<rleton College men’s tennis battled windy conditions and a regionally-ranked opponent on Monday, and the No. 37-ranked Knights secured a 7-2 victory and improved to 17-2 on the season and handed Macalester College its first conference loss of the season.
“The windy conditions were challenging,” said Carleton head coach Stephan Zweifel. “Everybody’s serves looked as solid as the Equifax firewall at the start of the matches.”
Carleton (4-0 MIAC) won at the top two doubles slots. The nationally-ranked duo of Jordon O’Kelly (Sr./Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and Leo Vithoontien (So./Bangkok, Thailand/Bangkok Patana School) prevailed 8-3 to lift their dual match record to 11-2 on the season. Jonas Lindholm-Uzzi (Jr./Germantown, N.Y./Red Hook) and Xander Zuczek (So./Westerly, R.I./St. Bernard) teamed up for the first time in their careers and secured an 8-6 victory.
Macalester (11-3, 4-1 MIAC) earned the first point in singles, but the Knights closed the day with five more straight-set singles triumphs.
Sahil Chhugani (Jr./Rochester, Minn./Century) notched a 6-2, 6-1 victory and O’Kelly got back in the win column with his 6-2, 6-3 result. Vithoontien then clinched the team victory with his 11th consecutive victory, this one by a 6-3, 6-3 margin.
Xander Roti (Fy./Locust Valley, N.Y./Friends Academy) improved to 15-1 in dual matches with his 6-2, 6-4 win at the third spot, and Lewis White (Jr./Minneapolis, Minn./Breck) finished the day by winning his match in a tiebreaker at 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).
