Jan. 28, 2006

Rocky River, Ohio- The Cleveland State men's tennis team lost its first match of the spring season Saturday afternoon despite an impressive performance by newcomer Olivier Dahine.

Xavier took the early lead of the day by sweeping the three doubles contests. Olivier Dahine and Steven Wipprecht teamed up for the closest match at No. 3 doubles, but fell short, 9-8 (6) to Rustin Reys and Ra'ees Ismail.

"Obviously, we are disappointed with the outcome today," said coach Brian Etzkin. "I think we have the personnel to beat a team at this level but looking at reality we had three people playing for the first time in months and it was tough. The cards we're just stacked against us and we couldn't get things started."

The Vikings continued to struggle in singles action. Junior transfer Dahine was the bright spot of the day, downing Doug Matthews 6-2, 6-4 and earning his first collegiate win.

"It was great to see Olivier Dahine win his first collegiate match and look really good doing it," said Etzkin. "He is going to be near the top of our lineup all year long and we expect him to help the team out a great deal."

Freshmen Rob West and Steven Wipprecht both lost hard-fought matches at No. 1 and No. 6 singles to Jeremy Miller and Mike Djeciuc, respectively.

"West and Wipprecht found a way to get their matches into the third set and though they didn't win, they fought hard and we need that from all six singles spots and doubles sets," said Etzkin.

The Vikings return to action on Feb. 3 when they travel to Niagara University.

Singles: No. 1 Jeremy Miller def. Rob West 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
No. 2 Oliver Marinkovic def. Jay Tee 6-0, 6-1
No. 3 Olivier Dahine def. Doug Matthews 6-2, 6-4
No. 4 Rob Simpson def. Brad Groleski 6-0, 6-2
No. 5 Ra'ees Ismail def. Dan Singer 6-2, 6-2
No. 6 Mike Djeciuc def. Steven Wipprecht 6-7 (7), 6-0, 6-1

Doubles: No. 1 Simpson/Matthews def. West/Tee 8-2
No. 2 Miller/Marinkovic def. Groleski/Singer 8-3
No. 3 Reys/Ismail def. Dahine/Wipprecht 9-8 (6)