March 27, 2015 - The Concordia-Chicago men's tennis team opened the new season this afternoon with a match against NAIA opponent Judson University. The combination of 30-degree temperatures and a light dusting of snow overnight caused the match to be moved indoors to the Oak Park Tennis and Fitness Center. 

While today's match was the first for the Cougars, it was the 13th for the Eagles, and Judson's edge in match experience showed in their 9-0 victory. The visitors' advantage was evident from the start as they started strong in doubles play. Concordia's first doubles team of Clinton Bienz (Fort Wayne, IN/Concordia Lutheran) and Patrick McIntosh (Tulsa, OK/Memorial) fell to Daniel Hendel and Elisha Hougland by an 8-1 score as did the third doubles team of Niko Vercelletto (Babylon, NY/West Babylon) and Andrew Menke (Pflugerville, TX/H.S.) to Michael Bruen and Josh Gronowski. The second doubles match resulted in an 8-3 score, Judson's Jon Moment and Isriz Balase over Ariel Manjarrez (Berwyn, IL/Morton West) and Alex Vieaux (Park Forest, IL/Illinois Lutheran).

The best singles match of the day came in the final one played, that at fourth singles. Bruen defeated McIntosh 6-0 in the first set, but McIntosh rallied from a 4-1 deficit in set two to tie at 5-5. However, Bruen took the final two points of the set to wrap up the Eagles' victory.

In the other singles results, Hougland topped Bienz 6-0, 6-1 at first. Balase defeated Manjarrez 6-0, 6-2 at second.  Hendel defeated Vieaux at third by 6-1, 6-1 scores. Tyler Kerley bested Vercelletto 6-1, 6-2 and Moment prevailed 6-0, 6-1 over Menke.

"This was a tough first match for us, but I'm glad that we were able to play it," said CUC interim coach Alexandre Brym. "This gave us an opportunity to see where we are at and what we need to work on to prepare ourselves for conference play." 

The Cougars will begin Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play next Saturday, April 4 when they host Lakeland College and Concordia University Wisconsin.