Results
INDIANAPOLIS – The University of Indianapolis men's tennis team dropped its first Great Lakes Valley Conference match of the season, 7-2, to No. 36 Lewis at the UIndy Tennis Center on Saturday.
The Greyhounds (4-2, 1-1 GLVC) battled against the Flyers (5-3, 2-0 GLVC) in a match that took more than 5.5 hours, but couldn't win enough of the key points to upend their nationally-ranked rivals.
"The score doesn't reflect the match because I think it was a little closer than 7-2," head coach
Malik Tabet said. "The difference was that we could have handled the pressure of the important points better."
Doubles was all Lewis as its No. 2 and No. 3 teams earned quick 8-2 and 8-3 wins over UIndy. The Greyhounds appeared to be able to take a point at No. 1 singles with freshmen
Fausto Cordova and
Ryan Frankel. The duo held a 7-4 lead over Erik Aunapuu and Armand Levandi, the No. 5 team in the Midwest Region, but couldn't win the decisive eighth game in falling 9-7 to give Lewis a commanding lead, 3-0.
The Greyhounds wouldn't go away in the singles as each of the top three matches went the full three sets.
Luke Hubert controlled Aunapuu with a 6-1 win in the first set at No. 2 against the No. 6 player in the region, but couldn't hold the lead in falling 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3).
UIndy stayed alive with its first point of the match as Cordova stormed back after losing the first set at No. 3 to defeat Florian Etienne 1-6, 6-2, 6-4. UIndy had a chance to keep the match alive at No. 1 where Frankel held a lead in the third set over Midwest No. 12 Levandi, but couldn't close it out in falling 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 for the decisive fifth point.
"Our newcomers learned a lot about the level of play in this conference and I thought competed really well, which bodes well for the future of this program," Tabet said.
Caleb Fellers added a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles for the Greyhounds' other point after the match had been decided.
The team heads on the road next weekend for matches at Bellarmine on Saturday and McKendree on Sunday.
