MEN’S TENNIS

The Forester men’s tennis team opened 2019 with a heroic comeback Wednesday afternoon by winning five of their six singles matches to earn the 5-2 win over Spring Arbor on Klopfenstein Courts. With this win, HU kicks off its season at 1-0 which also reflects their league record.

The 2019-20 season for the NAIA is marked with several changes which are based on NCAA Division I rules. Instead of a previously 9-point team score, a match now consists of seven points. Whichever team wins two of the three doubles matches is awarded a point after which a team is given a point for each singles match won. Four points are needed to win the match.

Other changes include no-ad scoring in singles and doubles. In no-ad scoring, when a game is tied at 40-40, known as deuce, the player who wins the next point wins the game. And finally, doubles play is now six sets instead of eight.

HU had to overcome being swept in doubles play and made it seem simple by collecting all but one win in singles. Under the old format, HU would have still been won the match, but the final score would have appeared much closer at 5-4. Instead, the Cougars earned just one point based on doubles and then managed one more point on the day at #3 singles to make for the 5-2 final.

Next up is a home match against Marian on Saturday at 11:00 a.m.

DOUBLES RECAP
#1 – Ryan MacLean/Alex Reinbold (SAU) def. Illia Turaba/Sebastian Salas (HU) 6-4
#2 – Connor Mogle/Brendan Bentley (SAU) def. Mateo Ameller/Diego Tapia (HU) 6-1
#3 – Patrick Doerr/Jonah Engle (SAU) def. Jacob Shelton/Andrew Yoder (HU) 6-0

SINGLES RECAP
#1 – Turaba (HU) def. MacLean (SAU) 7-6, 6-1
#2 – Ameller (HU) def. Reinbold (SAU) 6-2, 6-2
#3 – Mogle (SAU) def. Salas (HU) 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
#4 – Tapia (HU) def. Engle (SAU) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
#5 – Shelton (HU) def. Doerr (SAU) 6-7, 6-4, 6-1
#6 – Brody Worl (HU) def. Bentley (SAU) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2