Team opens up season

The men’s tennis team opened up their first tournament of the fall season with wins against St. Bonaventure at the Navy Invitational on Friday.

The young team swept the two doubles matches that were played and won five of the six singles bouts.

In the doubles matches, the second flight pair of sophomores Santiago Canete and Nicolas Paulus were unbeaten with an 8-5 win against their opponents. Teammates sophomore Sam Rundle and junior Hernan Vasconez won their match with the exact score at the third flight.

In singles play, Paulus, Canete, sophomore Hicham Belkssir and sophomore Maros Januvka were all undefeated, winning in straight sets. At the third flight, Paulus won with identical scores 6-1, 6-1. Canete won his sets with the scores of 6-2, 6-1 at the fourth flight. Belkssir kept his opponent at bay with a 6-2, 6-2 score at the sixth flight. At the seventh flight, Januvka won his sets with a 6-3, 6-2 decision. Rundle was able to hold off his opponent by winning the decisive tiebreaker, 6-1, 3-6, 1-0 (10-3) at the fifth flight.

“I thought we did really well today considering that our first official practice was on Wednesday,” Coach Steve Mauro said. “But I know they were practicing on their own.”

Kristian Marquart was unable to play today because on Thursday, at practice, he was accidentally hit by a ball on his finger and as a result his finger was sore according to Mauro, who thought it was best to rest Marquart today.

“Tomorrow hopefully he will play some doubles and then on Sunday we hope he can play both doubles and singles,” Mauro said.

The Owls will take to the court Saturday in hopes to continue their winning streak at 2 p.m. against the University of Delaware.

“I expect tomorrow to be a repeat of today,” Mauro said. “I think they are really excited about the season. They will have a little bit more rest tomorrow so I think they will do well.”