Vikings Fall To Duquesne In Spring Opener

Jan. 20, 2012

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's tennis team opened their 2012 spring schedule this evening, as the Vikings fell to Duquesne, 4-3. Matt Kuelker, Nolan Marks and Matt Ford were all victorious for the Vikings in singles play against the Dukes.

Duquesne claimed the doubles point after taking all three matches, getting out to a 1-0 lead. In No. 1 doubles, Marks and Ben Shklyar lost to the duo of Ben Klaas and Aram Abgaryan (8-5), at No. 2 Kuelker and Jorg Van Der Vloet fell to Pete Carpenter and Max Rubin (8-4), while Ali Shabib and Ford fell to Rich Robbie and Alex Aleman (8-3) at No. 3.

"We started out flat in doubles play tonight, but I definitely think we responded and picked up our play throughout the singles matches," assistant coach Jay Tee said. "Everyone really showed great effort during their singles matches, but I think Nolan, Matt Kuelker and Matt Ford stood out with the intensity that they had. All three of them came out strong and really focused on the match and what they had to do."

Kuelker picked up CSU's first victory of the day, defeating Pete Carpenter at No. 2 singles by a score of 6-2, 6-3. His performance was followed up by Marks, who claimed a 7-5, 6-2 victory at No. 4 singles over Alex Aleman. Ford claimed CSU's final win against Duquesne, posting a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Mehdi Mekaoui at the No. 6 position.

In his first dual match at CSU, Shabib played at the No. 1 position, falling to Aram Abgaryan by a score of 7-6, 6-2. Van Der Vloet, who was also playing in his first dual match as a Viking, fell to Max Rubin at No. 3 singles by a score of 6-4, 6-3. Jay Jones played in the final match of the day, falling to Rich Robbie (6-0, 6-3) at No. 5 singles.

The Vikings return to action in two weeks when they travel to Columbia and Princeton. CSU will first play a 2:00 p.m. match at Columbia on Friday, February 3 before facing Princeton at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 4.

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