Men’s tennis sweeps doubleheader, improves to 7-0

Zeyad Montasser preparing to return a shot during a doubles matches against Illinois State University Friday at West Hills Athletic Club. Montasser and partner Kazuya Komada won 8-6. Jo Wei Looi/Western Herald

By Alexandra Harvey
Western Herald

Western Michigan University’s men’s tennis team (7-0) remains undefeated, winning Friday’s doubleheader, defeating Illinois State University (5-2) and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (7-0) at the West Hills Athletic Club.

The Broncos swept the doubles matches, though Illinois State played a tough game by forcing tiebreakers in two of the three matches – one by junior Casey Cullen and sophomore Pablo Olivarez (9-8, (7-3)), and the other by junior Michael Calderone and freshman Thomas Calderone (9-8, (8-6)).

Playing against the Illinois State Redbirds, junior Kazuya Komada and sophomore Zeyad Montasser defeated Filip Milijevic and Alexander Pelaez, the 55th-ranked doubles team in the country.

“We were focusing in on the basic things, keeping our serves close and tight,” Montasser said.

Both Komada and Montasser agreed that their aggressive play helped them in their doubles victory against Illinois State.

“We’re very motivated and very aggressive,” Komada said.

In the singles matches, Montasser started WMU on its way to victory by winning his match against Xavier Riart-Ferrer (6-3, 6-3).

After ISU won on courts three and four, tying the match 2-2, Cullen, Komada and Michael Calderone were victorious in their matches, each of which went to the third set.

“The match was a little up and down, but we finished strong and won the clinches,” Bronco head coach David Morin said. “I think Casey Cullen really stepped up today. He’s one of our best fighters and he really turned his match around.”

In their evening match against Green Bay, the Brown and Gold came back strong and swept the event, winning all nine matches without dropping a set.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Feb 7 2010. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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