Tennis teams defeat Franklin College
The University of Indianapolis men and women’s tennis teams defeated Franklin College on March 4 at the UIndy Tennis Center.
The men’s team swept the visiting Grizzlies 9-0 as the Greyhounds advance to 7-1 for the season. UIndy won every match against Franklin.
Sophomore Michael Bradley won at the No. 1 spot in doubles and No. 5 in singles. Sophomore Trevor Cox swept the No. 1 spot in singles and fell behind Bradley in the No. 2 spots for doubles.
The women’s squad lost one game but still swept Franklin 9-0. The women advanced to a record of 3-4.
UIndy won all three doubles matches with a score of 8-0. At one, two, three, five and six, the Greyhounds swept the Grizzlies 6-0, 6-0. However, UIndy couldn’t hold onto perfection as one point was given to the Grizzlies at No. 4, 6-1, 6-0.
The women lost to No. 30 Wayne State University 6-3 on March 2. The Warriors pair of top six regionally ranked doubles teams won at No. 1 and No. 2. However, freshman Kelsey Matthews and senior Meghan Teunis won at the No. 3 spot.
Sophomore Kasey Land won 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 5 singles spot and sophomore Taylor Eckert swept the No. 6 spot.
Both men’s and women’s squads played Drury at home on Feb. 26. The women fell 6-3 in a rematch from the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinals of last year. Drury won 8-2 at No. 1 doubles and 8-4 at No. 2. Matthews won her third match with a 7-5, 6-3 victory against Drury’s Stefanie Monsch at No. 3.
The women’s squad also won the top two singles, 4-3, but Teunis and sophomore Claire Liles fell to the Panthers at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots. Teunis lost to Jelena Schaeftlmeier, 6-3, 6-4 and Liles to Abbey Sharpe, 6-2, 6-4.
“The execution of our shots could have been better,” Land said. “We also weren’t as pumped.”
The men’s team also lost to Drury in a non-conference matchup. The Panthers snapped the Greyhounds’ six-game winning-streak.
Senior Pete Wilson and junior Preston Swain had a chance to take a point in doubles, but the Panthers’ Jorge Nadal and Jandui Reyes fought back to win the match 9-7. No. 10 sophomore Trevor Cox competed in singles against the No. 31 singles player Andy Blair. Cox lost the match 6-4, 6-2.
The women’s team played against No. 25 Grand Valley State on February 24 and lost 5-4. Boyts and Land took the win at No. 2 doubles, 8-4. Senior Maggie Ashby and Senior Alena Perez-Majul also had an 8-3 win the No. 1 spot in doubles. At No. 3, sophomore Taylor Eckert and Teunis had a late win with 8-6.
“We rolled through doubles, but the single matches took a while,” Land said.
When singles took the court, Matthews beat Leah Dancz, the No.19 singles player in the Midwest, 6-3, 6-2 at No. 3. It gave the Greyhounds a 4-2 lead until Grand Valley State won in straight sets at each of the top two positions.
“We learned how to read other people,” Boyts said. “We could see little body movements and know what the other person was going to do.”
Land agreed with the composure of the team.
“We also learned how to build character and how to control our emotions,” she said.
Teunis at No.4 and Eckert at No.5 both lost, making the score even 4-4. Junior Rachel Barger won her first set 6-3 against Allison Fecko. She won two more matches before losing 3-6, 6-2, and 6-0.
For the men’s team, UIndy won a pair of doubles matches. Senior Christian Nikou and junior Matt Smith won at No. 1 after beating the duo of Andrew Darrell and Benny Delgado-Rochas, 8-4. The Lakers managed a win at the No. 2 spot, but Swain and Wilson won their match 8-6 and gave UIndy an overall lead of 2-1.
The Greyhounds split six singles matches as Cox earned the No. 1 spot after winning his matches 6-3, 6-3. However, the Lakers won at No. 2 and No. 3 to even the match score 3-3. Swain finished 2-0 and junior Alex Poe took the No. 5 spot.
Both teams will head down to Florida to compete during Spring Break.
