<tories by Mauricio Gonzalez ‘15 and Christian Nagy ‘16 in both singles and doubles propelled the Carleton College men’s tennis team to a 9-0 triumph over Concordia. The win lifted the Knights to the top spot in the conference standings.
Nagy and Patton McClelland ‘17 led Carleton’s sweep of doubles with an 8-3 result atop the lineup.
“Christian and Patton were rushing the net n doubles like was the stage at a Beyoncé concert,” said Carleton head coach Stephan Zweifel.
Gonzalez and Richard Yeker ‘16 added an 8-4 win at the second slot, with Philip Xiao ‘15 and Christian Purnell ‘17 notching an 8-2 win at third doubles.
Upon moving to singles, Gonzalez, Nagy, Nelson Wolf ‘14, Nikita Fomichev ‘17, and Mark Conrad ‘17 all posted straight-set triumphs.
Ben Huang ‘15 recovered after dropping the second set at fifth singles and captured the match by a 6-4, 4-6, 10-2 tally.
“Ben’s ‘A-game’ was a little off at the beginning of his match,” Zweifel said. “Fortunately, there are 25 other letters in the alphabet.”
Later in the week, the Knights matched up against St. Cloud State University, and picked up another team win.
With the match hanging on the final singles contest of the afternoon, McCoy Becker ‘14 lifted the Carleton College men’s tennis team to a 5-4 triumph over the NCAA Division II program.
The Knights (4-2) jumped out to a crucial 2-1 lead after doubles. Becker and Erik Johnson ‘16 posted an 8-3 result at first doubles over Joao Poli and Victor Kasak, a duo that has already beaten four MIAC tandems this month.
Mauricio Gonzalez and Richard Yeker notched the other doubles triumph by an 8-3 margin.
“I was very impressed with our doubles play today,” said Carleton head coach Stephan Zweifel. “We would have swept the Olympic medals in ice dancing with our teamwork, grace, and garish uniforms.”
The contest stayed close throughout singles play as the Huskies picked up wins at first, second, and fifth singles. The Knights countered with a 6-3, 6-3 victory from Ezra Frankel ‘17 at sixth singles and a clutch triumph by Christian Nagy in the third slot.
Nagy captured the first set only to watch his opponent knot things up before the Knight sophomore notched a 6-3, 2-6, 10-7 decision.
“In the second set, Christian was as flustered as Miss Kansas trying to explain the functioning of the World Bank. But like a consummate professional, he came through in the third-set tie breaker with dramatic fashion.”
Those results left the team scored deadlocked heading into the final singles bout. “A sense of calm swept over the team when McCoy stepped onto the court with the match tied, 4-4,” explained Zweifel. “That fellow gives up games as infrequently as a black hole gives up light.”
Becker indeed delivered and improved to 4-0 on the season with his 6-3, 6-4 victory.