April 8, 2019 - After a couple of weather-related postponements, the Concordia-Chicago men's tennis team was finally able to take to the courts on Saturday for their first two regular-season matches against conference rivals Lakeland University and Marian University. The short-handed Cougars dropped both matches but showed some great competitive spark.

The morning match at Lakeland featured several close matches, although the Cougars would fall by a final score of 7-2. Freshman Peter Rios had a successful debut, winning his match at second singles, 6-2 and 6-4 over Aaron Smith. Rios also teamed with Orlando Hayes at first doubles for a 8-7 (10-8) win over Nick Lange and Jared Nummerdor.

A couple of the other matches were played close to the vest. Hayes went three sets with Nummerdor at first singles. Nummerdor edged Hayes 7-5 in set one before Hayes roared back to win set two 6-1. The third set was a tight contest before Nummerdor emerged victorious by a score of 10-7. At third singles, Andrew Rodriguez put up a good fight, but Lange won the flight 7-5 and 6-3. 

In the afternoon match at Marian, the Cougars lost 6-1 despite more of the flights being closely contested. The lone CUC point came from Trey Dille at fourth singles, defeating Austin Hall 5-7, 6-4 and 10-4. Second singles also went to three sets, with Lawson MacDonald edging Rios 6-4, 4-6 and 11-9.

Both of the doubles matches were neck-and-neck. Hayes and Rios fell short at first doubles by an 8-6 score against MacDonald and Danny Roe. At second, Rodriguez and Dille lost 8-5 to Hall and Coy Paulson.

The Cougars will be on the home courts this Saturday, April 13 when they host Wisconsin Lutheran College and Concordia University Wisconsin.