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St. Cloud State University
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SCSU men's tennis team dominates weekend matches
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Monday, April 7, 2003
Media Credit: Ryan Henry
First-year student Titus Christianson returns a volley during his doubles match against St. Scholastica Saturday afternoon at Gold�s Gym in Sartell.
Media Credit: Ryan Henry
Senior Casey Haselwander serves it up during a Saturday afternoon home match vs. St. Scholastica at Gold�s Gym in Sartell.
SARTELL -- Last Saturday seemed like a good day to play tennis, that is if you weren't opponents of the SCSU men's tennis team.
The Huskies left Gold's Gym in good spirits notching two wins under their belts, besting Augustana College and the College of St. Scholastica 9-0. Both wins brought the Huskies' record to a respectable 16-5 on the season.
The No. 1 doubles pair of junior Bryan Baumann and senior Zac O'Donell won by a total tally of 8-5. The team of junior Josh Lunak and freshman Titus Christianson rolled past their opponents 8-1 at the No. 2 doubles spot. Senior co-captain Casey Haselwander and freshman Jeff Horner sped past their opponents 8-1 to complete the doubles sweep for the Huskies.
On the singles side, nothing went wrong for the Huskies as Baumann bested Augustana's Nate Wiegand in two sets, 6-1 and 6-2. Christianson, playing at the No. 2 spot in singles, waltzed past his opponent 6-1, 6-2. No. 3 singles player, Haselwander, sidestepped Augustana's Andrew Krueger tallying two 6-1 sets. Lunak also found the good side of the scorer's sheet winning 6-2, 6-1. Senior Zac Ulwelling played two solid sets, topping Augie's James Krueger 6-0, 6-3. Sophomore Chad Olson finished the physical lashing at the No. 6 singles spot with a 6-1, 6-3 win over AC's Frederick Rye-Florentz.
SCSU head coach Jerry Anderson had good things to say about his team's win, who were without the services of senior co-captain Bob Skenzich for undisclosed reasons.
"Everyone played well enough to win," Anderson said. "It was a good conference win for us. It's what we need going into the conference tournament in a few weeks."
A few hours later the Huskies hit the baselines again, much to the chagrin of the College of St. Scholastica.
The team of Baumann and O'Donell started things off on the right side of the net beating their opponents 8-5. Lunak and Christianson beat the team of Kyle Hawley and Jon Haycraft handily 8-4. Haselwander and Horner picked up where the left off earlier in the day, completing the sweep of the doubles matches, 8-4.
Baumann bested his opponent in straight sets on the singles end 6-3, 6-2. That brought his record to 13-8 on the season. Christianson chalked up a win by a tally of 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). Haselwander made short work of his St. Scholastica opponent besting him in two sets 6-0, 6-1. Lunak won to bring his singles season record to 14-2. Ulwelling and Horner also bested their opponents winning 6-1, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-3 respectively. After the win against Scholastica, Anderson was a happy person.
"Our guys played well in the second match. They had to elevate their play a little bit," Anderson said.
Solid play from every member of the roster is helping the team as they come down to their final two meets and then the NCC Tournament.
"It's a lot of individual effort on their parts," Anderson said. "We have a lot of great workers on this team. They come to work hard every practice and they're staying focused."
Haselwander was also pleased that SCSU picked up the two wins.
"These wins will be good for us," he said. "These guys were forcing us to score points, so that's what these two wins are going to do for us. It will help us down the stretch."
Skenzich was the only missing piece of the puzzle Saturday. His records this season speak for themselves ( 9-3 singles record, 12-6 doubles). Sometimes having one of your better players out of the lineup can hurt a team, especially if that player is going to miss the final two meets before the conference tournament.
"It stinks, because he's a heck of a doubles player," Haselwander said of Skenzich. "The biggest thing is having him get back into the swing of things after not playing. But, we'll play through it and do fine."
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