FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 9, 2020) – Northern Arizona's men's tennis played in a double header with Western New Mexico University today, sweeping the Mustangs with a 7-0 win in both matches.
"I think we had a really good day," head coach
Maciej Bogusz said. "It was good to see a couple of the guys who don't get to play make it into the line up and show us some good tennis with great energy."
In the 9 a.m. doubles, NAU clinched the doubles point after
David Nguyen and
Mikael Purne took a quick game of 6-1 over NMWU. Following shortly after,
Joachim Schaefer and
Daniel Dillon finished 6-3, giving NAU the leg up heading into the singles competition. WNMU's duo of Ruan Du Preez and Niko Barr did take the final win on the doubles against
Facundo Tumosa and
Eban Straker-Meads, 5-7. However, Tumosa and Straker-Meads redeemed themselves in the 2 p.m. doubles match against Du Preez and Barr, finishing last with a 6-4 tally. The 'Jacks won all the other two courts as well, with Schaefer and Dillon earning a 6-1 win and Nguyen and Purne with a 6-4 score.
For singles, Dillon reigned over his WNMU opponent, David Valles, leaving them scoreless in both sets with a 6-0 finish. Dillon performed his second singles match against Jose Mario Neto, coming out on top with 6-3 and 6-4 set scores.
Purne had quick singles matches in the morning against WNMU's Jace Crawford, winning 6-1 and 6-0 over the Mustang. In the afternoon, Purne easily took the first set, going 6-2. In an attempt to switch the score, WNMU's Shaurya Piplani took a few early games to cause Purne to trail 2-5. Ultimately, Purne forced a second set comeback from his deficit to win 7-6 (7-0). These two singles matches were Purne's first of the season, allowing him to start off his record 2-0.
"I was just trusting the process, like coach says," Purne said. "If I make it, I make it. My team was cheering and going crazy, and I couldn't let them down."
"[Mikael] has really grown a lot from last year," Bogusz said. Both Bogusz and assistant head coach,
Filip Kanczula, agreed that seeing Purne, with not having a lot of experience, thought he held himself up well today in both matches. "He was able to really handle the pressure well," Kanczula said. "It is a great confidence boost to win and will motivate him to keep doing better."
Tumosa finished his morning singles match similarly to Purne after winning his first set 6-2 and then tying his second set 6-6. In the 10-point tiebreaker, Tumosa cranked out a 7-3 finish to win his singles point. Later, Tumosa successfully completed his singles matches 6-2 and 6-3 over WNMU's Ruan Du Preez.
Nguyen was triumphant in both of his singles matches, earning his second and third singles wins of the season. In the first, Nguyen finished 6-1 and 6-3 over Piplani. The second, Nguyen won 6-2 in both sets over Valles.
Finishing towards the back half of the first singles match, Schaefer completed his games 6-2 and 6-3 against Neto. Schaefer then competed against Crawford, limiting his opponent to score only one point in the first set, going 6-1 and 6-0 in his afternoon singles match.
Straker-Meads started out his first singles match with a 6-4 win. He put more pressure on Du Preez in the second set, allowing a 6-2 win. As the day went on, Straker-Meads continued to bring the heat, sweeping his opponent, Niko Barr, going 6-0 in both sets.
The Lumberjacks begin their six away game swing starting with the two-day Cajun Invite against Louisiana on Feb. 14 and Corpus Christi the 15th.
9 a.m. Match Results
Doubles
