Owls get back on track with rout of Explorers

The men’s tennis team swept the Explorers 7-0 Friday after a seven-match road trip. Temple dominated by winning each match in straight sets.

In singles, juniors Santiago Canete 6-1, 7-6(1), Nicolas Paulus (6-2, 6-0), Ian Glessing (6-1, 6-0) and Maros Januvka (6-0, 6-0) cruised to take control of the match. Vineet Naran defeated his opponent with scores of 6-2, 6-0 and freshman Stephen Ong (6-1, 6-0) dominated for his first regular season win.

Coach Steve Mauro said that he was happy for Ong and that everyone got a chance to play in the match.

“Santiago had a good match against a strong LaSalle opponent,” Mauro said. “It was a good challenge for him. Nicolas had a good match today and I believe he is getting back on track after a tough loss against Wagner. Nicolas came out focused today and I was happy with his outcome.”

In doubles, the Owls dominated winning each doubles match. The duo of Glessing and Januvka won easily at the second flight with a 6-1 victory. The new pairing of freshman Anutej Yadiki and junior Ondre Cargill dominated with a score of 6-0. The first flight match the Owls won by default.

Well-rested off of its road trip, the Owls were fresh and ready to go. Mauro said that he gave the guys some time off and he said that the couple days of rest helped his team.

Mauro’s team has played the majority of its matches this season indoors due to the frigid weather and he said that the team will begin practicing outside to get accustomed with the new conditions.

“We are going to start practicing outdoors on Monday because it looks like the rest of the matches are going to be outside,” Mauro said. “The elements of playing tennis outside are different because the ball doesn’t travel as much as it does indoors. You can’t win serves easily and outside tennis is more about finishing the point up at the net … all of the different elements take sometime to get used to.”

Temple will have an eight-day layoff before taking on City 6 rival Penn on March 21.

Dalton Balthaser can be reached at dalton.balthaser@temple.edu or on Twitter @DaltonBalthaser.