Photo by Jakob Komel
Fulton, Mo. – The McPherson College men's and women's tennis teams travelled to Fulton, Missouri on Sunday to duel with the William Woods University Owls.
The Bulldog women were upended 7-0, and the men dropped their match 5-2. The women did win one match in doubles, but because this year the scoring format changed for doubles, the win doesn't show up in the score line. The doubles win came from the #1 team of Brittany Zipf (Sr. Rockhampton, Australia) and Erica Paradise (So. Bakersfield, Calif.) who hung on to defeat the Owls' top team 7-5.
In singles, the Bulldogs and Owls had close matches at #1, #3, and #4, but were unable to break through for the win. Individual results are listed below.
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Doubles
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1
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Zipf / Paradise
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W, 7-5
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2
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Khoroshevskaya / Ortiz
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L, 6-0
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3
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Mundo / Maxey
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L, 6-2
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Singles
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1
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Brittany Zipf
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L, 6-4, 6-4
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2
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Erica Paradise
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L, 6-2, 6-2
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3
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Polina Khoroshevskaya
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L, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0
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4
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Vanessa Mundo
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L, 6-2, 6-4
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5
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Kayla Ortiz
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 L, 6-3, 6-1
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6
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Kendra Maples
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 L, 6-0, 6-0
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On the men's side, the Bulldogs went toe to toe with an Owl team that is currently ranked No. 9 in the latest NAIA top 25 poll. They went into the match riding a four match win streak, but were without Nicolas Wahl (Sr. Koenigstein, Germany), who usually suits up at #2 doubles and #2 singles. Wahl came down with some sort of bug a couple of days before the match. The Bulldog Coaching staff was forced to do a little shuffling, and despite the big hole left by the absence of Wahl, the Bulldogs still put up a good fight against the Owls.
If a few more points had gone the Bulldogs' way, the outcome may have been a little different. The Mac men picked up three individual wins, one in doubles from the #1 team of Jacob Turley (Jr. Milton Keynes, England) / Martin Millos (Fr. Vigo, Spain) and then two points in singles. Millos played a stellar match at #4 winning in straight sets 7-6, 6-4, and fellow freshman and Spaniard Bruno Squarcia (Fr. Valencia, Spain) picked up a quality win at #6 6-1, 6-7, 1-0.
Individual results are listed belwo.
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Doubles
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1
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Turley / Millos
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W, 6-1
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2
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Bodin / Sakamoto
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L, 7-6
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3
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Komel / Monk
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L, 7-6
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Singles
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1
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Julien Bodin
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L, 6-1, 6-2
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2
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Jacob Turley
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L, 6-4, 6-4
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3
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Nathan Monk
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L, 6-1, 4-6, 1-0
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4
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Martin Millos
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W, 7-6, 6-4
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5
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Benjamin Wegener
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L, 6-2, 6-4
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6
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Bruno Squarcia
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W, 6-1, 6-7, 1-0
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"It was a tough day for us on the court today," said Bulldog interim head coach, Jeremy Nelson. "We have played very few meaningful matches in the past few weeks, and it showed a little bit. The positive is that we knocked off the rust in time to get geared up for our KCAC opener this coming Friday."
As Coach Nelson alluded to, the Bulldogs will be back in action on Friday in their first KCAC match of the spring. It will also be their home opener as they host the Tabor College Bluejays at 4 p.m. out at the McPherson High School courts.
