April 8, 2017 - It was a sunny day in more ways than one for the Concordia-Chicago men's tennis team as they celebrated their first victory today, topping Lakeland University by a final score of 8-1. 

The Cougars got off to a fast start as the third doubles team of Josh Krzyzanowski and Rudy Croon was off the court first with an 8-1 victory over Dylan Skewis and Bill Behrmann. Shortly afterwards, the first team of Ariel Manjarrez and Alex Vieaux defeated Jared Nummerdor and Kenichi Yamamoto, also by an 8-1 score.  The second doubles match  was a close battle, but CUC's Ryan Popowcer and Ben Fluga finally prevailed with an 8-6 win over Nick Lange and Andrew L'Empereur.

Concordia-Chicago needed two more points to claim their first win under head coach Howard Carley. Manjarrez scored the first in singles play with a 6-0, 6-0 sweep of Nummerdor at first flight. Lakeland delayed the celebration as they claimed their lone point at sixth singles, Aaron Almedina defeating Croon 6-3 and 6-1. But Krzyzanowski made it official as he won at third, 6-4 and 6-0 over L'Empereur. The final three sets went to CUC as well, Vieaux defeating Lange 6-3 and 6-1 at second, Popowcer topping Yamamoto 6-2 and 6-3 at fourth, and Fluga edging Skewis 7-5 and 6-2 at fifth.

"We had a rough go in the early part of the season, but our players really worked to improve, and today showed that all the work was worth it," said Carley. "Our non-conference matches were designed to help us make progress, and it was great to see that we reached this point where we were able to come out today, put it together and win a match. I'm very happy for our players that they could be a part of this."

The Cougars' bid for a Saturday sweep was knocked aside as Concordia Wisconsin scored a 9-0 victory in the afternoon match.

Concordia-Chicago (1-6, 1-1 NACC) will be back in action next Saturday, April 15 when they play at the Milwaukee School of Engineering and Wisconsin Lutheran College,