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After sustaining its first—and only—loss of the season earlier this month, the Carleton College men’s tennis team got back into the win column with an 8-1 victory over regionally-ranked Luther College. Seniors Mauricio Gonzalez (La Paz, Bolivia/ American Cooperative School) and Andrew Hwang (Brookfield, Wis./ University School) and junior Erik Johnson (Grand Forks, N.D./Red River) led the way with victories in both singles and doubles.
“I was very impressed with our focus and willingness to dig deep in order to compete against an always strong team in the region,” said Carleton head coach Stephan Zweifel.
The Knights took two of the three doubles matches to secure the early advantage and then ended up sweeping singles for a seemingly lopsided result, however, three of those singles matches required a super tiebreaker.
In doubles, Hwang and Johnson posted an 8-5 triumph at the first spot, while Gonzalez and Kevin Hurley (Fy./Novi, Mich./Univ. of Detroit Jesuit) prevailed, 8-2, at the third slot.
In singles, straight-set victories from Hwang, Patton McClelland (So./Rock Hill, S.C./Charlotte Latin School), and Ezra Frankel (So./Lin- coln, Mass./Belmont Hill School) gave the Knights the necessary five points for the team win. McClelland won his 10th consecutive match and improved to 15-1 this season, while Frankel had the clinching victory today and moved to 11-1 on the year.
While the team result was already decided, the three remaining singles matches provided plenty of drama. At No. 4 singles, Gonzalez came out on top 6-4, 2-6, 10-4.
Johnson overcame a slow start at No. 2 singles and triumphed 2-6, 6-3, 10-4. “One has a better chance of mastering the conjugation of irregular French verbs than understanding the baffling complexity of Erik’s match- es,” said Zweifel.
That left only one match unresolved: No. 1 singles where Carleton’s Kevin Mei (Fy./Ann Arbor, Mich./ Huron) was battling Kyle Appel, who is regionally ranked. Mei improved to 13-2 for his rookie campaign after prevailing 6-7, 6-3, 10-2.
“The No. 1 singles match was a treat to watch,” said Zweifel. “Both players displayed amazing court coverage and were not afraid to go after their shots aggressively. But in the end, Kevin’s passion for running down tennis balls rivals my Jack Russell Terrier.”
The Knights will put their unblemished MIAC record on the line when they visit neighboring St. Olaf College on Wednesday, April 15 at 4 p.m. That will be the first of six conference matches for Carleton over the next two weeks which conclude the rest of the regular season.