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St. Cloud State University
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Men's tennis hits a bump
Published:
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Media Credit: Kim Bucholz
Titus Christianson, a sophomore, competed at the SCSU Men´s Tennis Tournament Tuesday at Gold´s Gym.
The men's tennis team has started its march toward a third straight NCC title in record fashion, compiling a 15-5 with no hint of halting.
The bad news is the team finished its recent trudge to Florida with a record of 2-3, slightly slowing down the team's fiery 12-2 start. While the southern trek accounts for more than half the of the team's total losses, the toughest portion of the schedule is behind them, and the Huskies now look to continue their dominance of teams in this region.
SCSU started the season with an 11-game winning streak, cruising past opponents like Hamline, Augustana, UW-Eau Claire, MSU-Mankato and Winona State, before stumbling at Nebraska-Kearney 5-4 March 4. As of Tuesday, the Huskies are 4-5 since the beginning of March, but the team has played well against solid competition in Orlando, dropping matches but sharpening skills.
The Huskies started out the trip dropping their first two matches to nationally-ranked Eckerd College and Division I opponent Cleveland State before rebounding to win the next two matches over the Cardinals of William Jewell College and the Queens College Knights. The team then fell in the final match of the trip to Webber College, returning north with a season record of 14-5. Despite the sub .500 record on the trip, the team saw bright spots, most notably the play from senior Josh Lunak, who went a perfect 5-0 in singles competition.
The Huskies are ranked fifth in the North Central Region in the latest Division II poll released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, and have two individually ranked singles players in senior Bryan Baumann, ranked seventh and sophomore Titus Christianson, ranked 14th. In the ITA's doubles poll, Baumann, who was half of last year's top doubles pairing in the conference, and Lunak are ranked fourth, while another Huskies pair reach the top 10 in Christianson and junior Zac O'Donnell, ranked ninth.
A school record of 24-7 in dual matches set in 2002 is in danger of being broken this season as the Huskies try to make the NCAA Division II Regional Playoffs for the third straight season, as well as capture a third straight NCC title and 11th overall. Conference rival Northern Colorado has jumped to Division I, leaving the Huskies as the conference favorite once again.
Winning the NCC outright would place SCSU as the conference leader in overall titles as the Huskies, along with Augustana, North Dakota and newly absconded UNC all hold 10 titles respectively.
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