Subscribe to RSSLumberjack tennis nets first win of the season
By Shakina Washington
With Big Sky Conference (BSC) matches fast approaching, the NAU men’s tennis team tallied its first win of the season against University of California, Riverside (UCR) after dropping their first two matches against the UA Wildcats and the Lions of Vanguard University (VU).
Despite a 6–1 loss to the Lions, the Jacks were not deterred, and instead the squad learned from their mistakes.
“With every match we learn something about how to compete better; what each guy needs to do to play those bigger points,” said head coach Kim Bruno. “We grew from each match.”
The match against VU resulted in the loss of five singles match-ups. The only singles point NAU received was from junior Shawn Waters, who swept junior Robin Wagner 6–4 in two sets.
“I think we’re on our way to finding the right form,” Waters said.
The loss of the previous contest gave NAU the push they needed in order to focus on winning their next match against UCR.
The Lumberjacks began to find their form with a 5–2 victory over the Highlanders.
“Today was just an overall good performance,” said senior Ben Lantz.“We came out as a team that competed and now we can build off of it for the rest of the season.”
NAU secured its first doubles match when sophomore Dominic Bermudez and junior Robert Martin won 8–3. The tandem of Lantz and junior Patrick Schimmenlbauer followed by scoring their second consecutive win of the season in doubles play and notched the doubles point for the Jacks.
With two set scores of 6–2 and 6–3, Lantz received NAU’s first singles match win against UCR freshman Kelly Dickson. The Lumberjacks claimed four of their six singles matches, with Bermudez securing the victory for the Jacks.
“This win is going to take us a long way,” Bruno said. “The guys competed hard and did everything we asked of them and that’s why we won by two [in singles play].”
NAU men’s tennis travels to Greeley, Colo. to kick off BSC match play against University of Northern Colorado (UNC) on Feb. 11.
NAU defeated UNC 7–0 during the 2011 spring season.
“Northern Colorado should be a team we should be able to beat,” Bruno said.
