Feb. 7, 2015 DENVER - The No. 64 University of Denver men's tennis (3-4) team could not finish off the Nebraska Cornhuskers (2-2) Saturday Feb. 7 at the Colorado Athletic Center on Monaco. The Pioneers lost, 4-3.
"This loss was a very tough one," said Head Coach Danny Westerman. "There's no question we tried our best, but we need to try smarter."
The Pioneers got out to a fast start again, winning the doubles point uncontested. Junior Henry Craig and freshman Jesse Ruder-Hook earned their second win as a duo, defeating Marc Herrmann and Chris Hobgarski, 6-3. Sophomores Yannik James and Diogo Rocha notched the 1-0 lead for the Pioneers by beating the tandem of Linus Erhart and Scott Elsass, 6-4.
The Huskers would not go away as they would win the next three points with straight set victories on courts two, three, and six. James would keep the Pioneers in the match with a three set win over Andrew Dzulynsky, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.
Junior David Fox earned a tough victory, his third of the season, when he came back from being down, 5-1 in the second set. He would beat Hobgarski, 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 to tie the match at 3-3. Craig would go all the way to a third set tiebreaker, but could not complete victory falling, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).
"I am excited to see how we respond next week against two more tough opponents," said Westerman.
Denver will head to Utah to face off against BYU on February 13 at 4:30 p.m. MT and No. 54 Utah on February 14 at 5:30 p.m. MT.
February 7, 2015
No. 64 Denver 3, Nebraska 4
Doubles competition
1. BOYER, Dusty/ZITSCH, Bradford (NEB) vs. GASSON, Alex/FOX, David (MDEN) no result
2. ROCHA, Diogo/JAMES, Yannik (MDEN) def. ERHART, Linus/ELSASS, Scott (NEB) 6-4
3. RUDER-HOOK, JESSE/CRAIG, Henry (MDEN) def. HERRMANN, Marc/HOBGARSKI, Chris (NEB) 6-3
Singles competition
1. BOYER, Dusty (NEB) def. Craig, Henry (MDEN) 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4)
2. HERRMANN, Marc (NEB) def. Rocha, Diogo (MDEN) 6-4, 6-3
3. ERHART, Linus (NEB) def. Gasson, Alex (MDEN) 7-6 (7-4), 6-2
4. James, Yannik (MDEN) def. DZULYNSKY, Andrew (NEB) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1
5. Fox, David (MDEN) def. HOBGARSKI, Chris (NEB) 1-6, 7-5, 7-5
6. STAVROPOULOS, Vasileios (NEB) def. Ruder-Hook, Jesse (MDEN) 6-2, 6-4
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2); Singles (6,3,2,4,5,1)
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