NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's tennis team celebrated Senior Day with a 9-0 victory over Hamline University in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) action on Friday afternoon at Carlson Courts.
St. Olaf (5-11, 2-5 MIAC) extended its winning streak over Hamline (9-8, 1-6 MIAC) to six matches by picking up its first sweep in the series since claiming three-straight 9-0 wins from 2014-16. The Oles lost just eight games across the three doubles matches and dropped just one set out of 13 in singles.
After the match, St. Olaf honored
Henry Smith – the team's lone senior – for his dedication to the program over the last four seasons. With two wins on Friday, Smith raised his career total to 36 individual match victories between singles and doubles. His six singles victories this season mark the highest total of his career.
Smith and first year
Bogdan Vizoli wasted little time in putting the first point on the board in doubles, winning the first six games on their way to an 8-1 triumph at the top spot. Junior
Max Loesch and first year
Henry Kruse also used a quick start to win their match at No. 2 doubles, claiming six of the first seven games before closing out an 8-3 win. Juniors
Jakub Belik and
Karsten Johnson added an 8-4 victory at No. 3 doubles in just their second match as a tandem this season.
Vizoli, Smith, Johnson, Belik, and Loesch were all victorious in straight sets for the Oles in singles, while Kruse won the lone super tiebreaker of the afternoon. Vizoli logged his team-best eighth singles win of the season and moved to a team-best 5-2 in conference play with a 6-0, 6-3 victory at No. 1 singles. Smith lost just one game on his Senior Day at No. 2 singles.
Johnson and Loesch both registered their first MIAC singles victories, as Johnson recorded a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles and Loesch won a second-set tiebreaker to finish off a 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory at No. 6 singles. Belik lost just three games in a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 5 singles, while Kruse recovered from an early 3-0 deficit in the super tiebreaker to complete a 5-7, 6-3, 10-8 come-from-behind victory at No. 3 singles.
St. Olaf plays its second of back-to-back MIAC matches when it takes on Concordia-Moorhead on Saturday, April 15 at 1:30 p.m. at West Hills Tennis and Fitness Center in Owatonna.
