Huskies Edged by West Liberty Tuesday in Hilton Head, S.C.
HILTON HEAD, S.C. – The Michigan Tech men's tennis team came up just short against West Liberty University on Tuesday 5-4 at the Spring Tennis Fest in Hilton Head, South Carolina. The match went down to the wire with two singles contests going into a tiebreaker.
"I was happy with how our team played today," Michigan Tech Head Coach Kevin Kalinec said. "I saw a lot of improvement in today's match and we made some good progress after the season opener against Belmont Abbey. Our freshmen played well and it was exciting to see Nico [Caviglia] and Ignacio [Carbajosa] get their first collegiate singles wins while Simon [Xiong] picked up his first collegiate doubles victory. Today's performances will be a big confidence boost for our players as we move forward into our next match."
Michigan Tech (0-2) notched one of the four points in the match during doubles competition when Nico Caviglia and Simon Xiong pulled away for an 8-3 victory in the No. 2 spot. Mario Neto and Ignacio Carbajosa stayed on the heels of Camilo Moncayo and Daniel Nogareda, but fell by two points in the end 9-7. The team of Luke Flanagan and Vincent Huynh recorded the other point in No. 3 doubles with an 8-3 decision over Juan Felipe Chica and Illiya Chibirev.
In singles, the Huskies top three players in the lineup secured points in Tuesday's match. Caviglia took both sets against Nogareda 6-4, 6-3 in No. 1 singles followed by Neto who outlasted Moncayo in three sets. Neto grabbed the early advantage 6-3 after one set, but Moncayo battled back with a 6-3 win of his own to force the tiebreaker. Neto ended up prevailing 10-5 on his way to the singles win.
Carbajosa joined fellow freshman Caviglia in getting his first collegiate singles win on Tuesday. Carbajosa battled past Matt Lynch in the No. 3 spot 6-2, 6-3. Unfortunately, West Liberty (2-3) picked up the other three points in singles competition to get the overall match win. Huynh defeated Xiong 6-3, 6-0 in the No. 4 spot, Zach Kirkwood topped Felipe Chica 6-3, 6-2 in No. 5 singles, and Hayden Blazer slipped past Chibirev 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 in a hard fought contest in the No. 6 spot.
The Huskies are back on the court Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. against Kutztown for match three of the Spring Tennis Fest in Hilton Head, S.C.