April 5, 2014 - Opening day for the 2014 Concordia-Chicago men's tennis team saw them split a pair of road matches. The Cougars debuted with a 7-2 setback to Edgewood College but came back in the afternoon match for a commanding 9-0 win over Marian University.
In the Edgewood match, sophomore Niko Vercelletto (Babylon, NY/West Babylon) provided both of CUC's points. He defeated Brandon Glock at fifth singles by 6-4, 3-6 and 10-6 scores and teamed with Zach Eddins (Hickory, NC/St. Stephen) at third doubles for an 8-6 win over Glock and Tyler Houston. The Cougars' doubles teams got things rolling in the Marian match with some hard-fought wins. Vercelletto and Chris Auger (Bad Axe, MI/H.S.) won 8-4 at third as did Alex Vieaux (Park Forest, IL/Illinois Lutheran) and Patrick McIntosh (Tulsa, OK/Tulsa Memorial) at second. First doubles was an even tighter match as Ariel Manjarrez (Berwyn, IL/Morton West and Clinton Bienz (Fort Wayne, IN/Concordia Lutheran) finally prevailed by an 8-6 margin. Manjarrez, Vieaux and Eddins notched their first career singles wins in this match. Manjarrez played at number one and defeated Elan Solvik 7-6, 4-6 and 10-7. Vieaux also went three sets in his match at third, edging Spencer Braswell 7-5, 4-6, 10-6. Eddins took care of business in two sets at sixth with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Payton Trammel.
The remaining singles matches went to Bienz at second (6-0, 6-1 over Jose Valencia), McIntosh at fourth (6-4, 6-1 over Mike Kunes) and Vercelletto at fifth (6-0, 2-6, 11-9 over Sam Maetzold).
Concordia-Chicago will compete on the home courts next Saturday, April 12 against Aurora University and Rockford University.
