April 5, 2012 - The Concordia Cougar men's tennis team came back from a nearly two-week hiatus to play the first of three matches over the next three days. Today's match marked the opening of Northern Athletics Conference play, and the Cougars lost a close 5-4 contest to neighboring Dominican University.
Match play began with doubles, and the Cougars took one of the three points. That came at second doubles where Tim Staffeld (Hobart, IN/H.S.) and Vince Termini (Addison, IL/Addison Trail) prevailed 8-6 over Marco Colapietro and Alexander Dee.
The Cougars' first team of Alex Tarullo (Berwyn, IL/Morton West) and Thien Van (Berwyn, IL/Morton West) fell short 8-5 against Greg Tabaka and Kevin Amarantos. Third doubles went to Dominican's team of Adrian Chavez and Efrain Rodriguez 8-3 over Chayanne Martinez (Carpentersville, IL/Dundee-Crown) and Luis Rivera (Franklin Park, IL/East Leyden).
In singles play, Staffeld blanked Dee 6-0, 6-0 at fourth, and Adam Schoedel (St. Charles, MO/Lutheran St. Charles) won at sixth, 6-4 and 6-3 over Mohit Shekhar. Termini won Concordia's third point at singles and fourth for the match as Colapietro retired from their third singles match.
The Stars scored points at first where Amarantos bet Tarullo 6-2 and 6-3, and at second where Tabaka defeated Van 6-3 and 7-5. The lone three-set match of the day came at fifth where Rodriguez topped Martinez 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Concordia returns to action on Saturday when they host NAC opponents Milwaukee Engineering at 10:00 and Wisconsin Lutheran College at 2:00.
