Men's Tennis 1/21/2011 12:00:00 AM

Vikings Drop Spring Opener at Western Michigan, 7-0

Jan. 21, 2011

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Cleveland State men's tennis team dropped its spring opener at Western Michigan, 7-0, on Friday afternoon at the West Hills Athletic Club.

The loss drops CSU to 0-1 this year, while WMU improves to 2-1.

"Obviously, this isn't how we hoped to open the season," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "We didn't convert points when we had the opportunities and that hurt us today. But we have to give credit to Western Michigan because they were the better team today and outplayed us."

WMU won two of the three doubles matches to take a quick 1-0 lead in the match. Yannick Goossens and Matt Kuelker teamed at No. 2 doubles to earn an 8-7 (7-5) victory for CSU's lone win.

"Goose and Kuelker played a good doubles match," Etzkin said. "They got a break late, then got broken, but came back with another break. It was good to see them work together and feed off each other out there."

Rob Fox and John Haley played a tight match at No. 1 doubles, falling 8-6.

"I thought Rob and John had some chances to win their doubles match, but they couldn't pull out a key point when it was needed," Etzkin said. "But these are the types of matches we will learn from and grow as a team."

The Broncos then clinched the victory with straight sets wins in four of the six singles matches.

"It was tough losing the doubles point and then getting behind so quickly in our singles matches," Etzkin said. "We can't have quick matches and need everyone to be in their matches if we want to be able to compete with some of the more elite teams.

"In the end, this was just one match and we will learn from this. We get back at it tomorrow and will see if we can get better from one day to the next."

The Vikings are back in action on Saturday (Jan. 22) when CSU heads to Michigan State for a 10:00 a.m. match.

Western Michigan 7, Cleveland State 0
Jan 21, 2011 at Kalamazoo, Mich. (West Hills Athletic Club)

Singles competition
1. Michael Calderone (WMU) def. Yannick Goossens (CSU) 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 1-0 (10-8)
2. Kazuya Komada (WMU) def. Matt Kuelker (CSU) 6-3, 6-3
3. Simon Blomberg (WMU) def. Robert Fox (CSU) 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-5)
4. Pablo Olivarez (WMU) def. Chris Klepatz (CSU) 6-1, 6-4
5. Casey Cullen (WMU) def. John Haley (CSU) 6-0, 6-1
6. Brad Noel (WMU) def. Matt Ford (CSU) 6-4, 6-1

Doubles competition
1. Thomas Calderone/Michael Calderone (WMU) def. Robert Fox/John Haley (CSU) 8-6
2. Yannick Goossens/Matt Kuelker (CSU) def. Kazuya Komada/Zeyad Montasser (WMU) 8-7 (7-5)
3. Casey Cullen/Pablo Olivarez (WMU) def. Chris Klepatz/Matt Ford (CSU) 8-2

Exhibition Matches
Ross VanderPloeg (WMU) d. Jay Jones (CSU), 6-1, 6-1
Zeyad Montasser (WMU) d. Aris Spirtos (CSU), 8-4

Zeyad Montasser/Brad Noel (WMU) d. Jay Jones/Aris Spirtos (CSU), 8-2

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