April 7, 2011 - The new season got underway this afternoon for the Concordia men's tennis team, and the Cougars marked it with a 6-3 win over Division Street rival Dominican University.

 

Concordia took a 2-1 lead after doubles play and never looked back. Thien Van (Berwyn, IL/Morton West) and freshman Nathan Wingfield (Greendale, WI/Martin Luther) prevailed in a tight 9-7 second doubles match over Matt Sarantopoulos and Marco Colapietro. The third doubles team of John Gehm (Frankenmuth, MI/H.S.) and Alex Tarullo (Berwyn, IL/Morton West) had an easier time, defeating Efrain Rodriguez and Alex Dee by an 8-1 score. The Stars' lone doubles point came at first where Keven Amarantos and Gregory Tabaka beat Jeff Smith (Moline, IL/H.S.) and Tim Staffeld (Hobart, IN/H.S.) by the same 8-1 score.

 

In singles play, Staffeld gave Concordia its third point of the match as he shut out Rodriguez 6-0, 6-0 at fifth. However, Smith was blanked in the same manner by Amarantos at first flight. The Cougars would pull away as they won three of the final four matches contested. Tarullo beat Sarantopoulos 6-3, 6-4 at third. Van needed three sets to edge Colapietro 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 at fourth. Gehm won his sixth singles match over Dee by 6-2, 6-3 scores. Dominican's final point came at second where Tabaka defeated Wingfield 7-5 and 6-4.

 

The Cougars will continue the early-season run of conference play as they play at the Milwaukee School of Engineering and Wisconsin Lutheran College on Saturday.