PARK FOREST, Ill. – The Purdue Northwest men's and women's tennis teams opened Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action Friday by sweeping Lake Superior State at the Park Forest Tennis Club.
The PNW men's team improved to 4-3 overall with their 5-2 victory while the women's team is now 4-4 after sinking the Lakers, 4-3.
In men's action, the Pride took a 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point thanks to
Miguel Agustin Flores Cepeda and
Levent Evyapan in the No. 1-doubles flight and
Leon Kah and
Luca Kirchhoff in the No. 2-doubles flight.
Flores Cepeda and Evyepan downed their opponents 6-3 and were followed by Kah and Kirchhoff with a 6-4 downing of Krishan Taneja and Ali Sahibzada.
Kah (6-4, 6-3), Kirchhoff (6-3, 6-4), Evyapan (6-4, 6-1) and
Marcos Jose Diaz Gutierrez (6-4, 6-4) won their matches in straight sets.
Kah is now 6-1 in singles this season while Kirchhoff is 4-3, Evyapan is 3-4 and Diaz Gutierrez is undefeated at 2-0.
PNW narrowly missed out on a 7-0 sweep in men's action, but a pair of losses in singles flights No. 1 and No. 6 gave way to the final margin of 5-2.
The PNW women's team fell behind early by dropping the doubles point, despite the duo of
Nicole Uzcategui and
Patricia Dizon improving to 5-2 as a pair this season with a 7-6 (5-3) win in No. 2-doubles action.
The Pride would then claw their way back into the match and eventually win with four singles victories by
Sienna Lopez,
Lena Van Bergen, Uzcategui and
Julia Yanes-Barrera.
Lopez improved her singles record to 5-2 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over LSSU's Nadege Koua in the No. 1-singles flight.
Van Bergen won for the second time this season after cruising past Muskaan Ranjan 6-4, 6-1 in No. 2-singles action.
Uzcategui (5-3) and Yanes-Barrera (6-1) both downed their opponents by the same score of 6-2 in their first sets. Uzcategui took her match with a 6-4 second set victory while Yanes-Barrera needed just a 6-3 victory in her second set for the match win.
NEXT UP
PNW will return to action by closing out the GLIAC-opening weekend when the Pride welcome the Michigan Tech Huskies to the Park Forest Tennis Club on Saturday afternoon. First serve for both matches is scheduled for 1 p.m. CDT.
