NIU senior Mikael Vollbach (left) serves to University of North Dakota players as senior Cheng En Tsai ducks behind the net to prepare for the return. Tsai and Vollbach locked in with the other Huskie doubles, giving up only 2 games. (Totus Tuus Keely | Northern Star)
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Following a 6-1 defeat on the road against the Drake University Bulldogs, the NIU men’s tennis team returned home to crush the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks in a 6-1 win. NIU was undefeated in doubles and only had one loss in singles.
NIU seniors Mikael Vollbach and Cheng En Tsai dominated in their match against North Dakota freshman Ethan Terry and sophomore Jerall Yasin,earning a 6-2 victory.
Freshman Sam Klein and sophomore Iker Gaztambide Arrastia defeated North Dakota sophomores Christos Alex and Jayho Hong by a score of 6-2.
Freshman Saul Berdullas and senior Armin Koschtojan tied North Dakota sophomore Ange-Kevin Koua and junior Leandro Zgraggen 3-3 before winning three more games for a final score of 6-3.
“I’ll tell the guys you got to treat every match like it’s the conference championship,” said NIU men’s tennis graduate assistant Shao-Yu Yu. “Every point matters even if the match is decided at four. We still want to win every match, which the guys did a great job today.”
NIU won five out of its six singles matches with its only loss occurring in a tiebreak set and four wins being straight set victories.
Tsai fought his first set against Koua to a tiebreak, winning two games in a row to take the first set 7-5. Tsai lost the second set 6-3 but came back in the third set. Tsai won three games in a row in the third set, defeating Koua by a final score of 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.
Vollbach tied his first set against Yasin 3-3, emerging victorious in 3 more games to finish out the set 6-3. Vollbach dominated in the second set, winning against Yasin 6-3, 6-0.
Klein took three of his sets to tiebreaks. In the first tiebreak, Klein tied Alex 6-6 and won two more points to take the first set 7-6 (8-6). Klein tied the second set at 6-6, taking the set to tiebreak points before losing the set 6-7 (3-7). In the third set, Klein tied Alex 7-7 but was bested by a final score of 7-6(8-6), 6-7(3-7), 0-1(8-10).
“We’re definitely more comfortable taking chances,” Yu said. “We’re not backing off when chances present themselves, and instead of waiting for the other person to make mistakes, we were kind of taking the opportunity to finish them instead. That’s definitely an improvement we have.”
NIU will play its next match on the road at noon Monday against Chicago State University.