Men’s Tennis Stuns D1’s Holy Cross, 6-3, Thursday
QUINCY, Mass.- The Eastern Nazarene College men's tennis team upended NCAA Division I foe Holy Cross 6-3 Thursday afternoon at the ENC Tennis Courts to pick up its first-ever win over the Crusaders.
The Lions improve to 2-1 overall while Holy Cross dips to 1-3 on the year.
The home team claimed a pair of doubles wins to grab a 2- 1 lead entering singles action.
Santiago Camero (Toronto, Ontario) and Henry Siercke (Hamburg, Germany) rolled to an 8-2 victory at the top doubles position over Pat O'Shea and Johnny McAuliffe.
Kyle Pierson (Redding, Calif.) and Kaden Swarr (Brighton, Colo) downed Tom Cimini and Matthew Murphy at the No. 3 spot, 8-3.
Laurent Ruttkowski (Castrop-Rauxel, Germany) and Davis Steelman (Darlington, Md.) narrowly fell to Elmer Lutz and Peter Campito in a tie-breaker, 13-11, as the Crusaders earned a 9-8 win at the second position.
Eastern Nazarene chalked up four victories in singles play to secure the match.
Ruttkowski topped O'Shea 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 1 singles slot and Siercke defeated Lutz 6-1, 6-3 at the second spot.
Camero collected a 6-0, 6-3 win at the No. 3 position over McAuliffe. Steelman breezed by Murphy in the fifth singles match 6-0, 6-0.
Pierson suffered a 6-2, 6-2 setback at the fourth slot against Campito while Shaw Campbell (Redding, Calif.) fell to Cimini 6-4, 6-1 at the No. 6 spot.
"A good team effort today against a solid opponent. There are still areas we need to work on but overall the guys played pretty well," said head coach Cris Popa.
Looking ahead, the Lions return to action September 24 as they host their annual Fall Invitational with action kicking off at 9:00 am.