DENVER – The No. 38-ranked University of Denver men's tennis team (11-0, 0-0 Summit) kept its undefeated start to the 2024 season going with a 4-0 win over Montana at Denver Tennis Park on Friday.
 
It marked Denver's fourth sweep of the season and its third in the last four matches, extending the best start in the program's Division I history.
 
Coach's Notes:
From head coach Drew Eberly: "I'm glad to get this win. Montana is a very good team that's very well coached. Jason (Brown, Montana's head coach) does an amazing job. Their top three are very good and pushed us, and doubles was very tight.
 
"I feel like there were some moments where we were in and out of competitive focus, but the guys did a good job, and we're happy to be 11-0. We play a very good and tough Wichita State team on Sunday. We'll have some rest and recovery tomorrow, and then get back to it Sunday, and we'd love to have the fans come out for a nice 10:30 Sunday match."
 
Doubles:
The battle for the doubles point took nearly an hour and saw two of the three matches reach tiebreaks. Graduate student Marvin Schaber and junior Daniel Sancho Arbizu captured the first win of the night at No. 2 doubles after claiming a quick 3-0 lead and turning it into 5-1 before sealing it at 6-3.
 
Senior Peter Sallay and sophomore Raffaello Papajcik remained on serve for the entirety of the No. 3 doubles match, ending up in a breaker that also stayed on serve until the Pioneers garnered a minibreak for 6-4 and took it on the next point.
 
Senior Nicolas Herrero Cuesta and junior Rikuto Yamaguchi had just started a tiebreak as well and were level at 1-1 when Sallay/Papajcik clinched the point in DU's favor.
 
Singles:
For the second time this year, senior Charlie Miller dropped just a single game in a singles victory, matching his season-opening score of 6-1 6-0 over an ailing opponent. In the first set, he broke in his first return games before his opponent claimed what would be his only game of the night. Miller then started the second serve with a hold and never looked back.
 
Papajcik won his fifth-consecutive singles match – and his fourth at the No. 5 singles slot – with his second 6-2 6-3 win of the season. He took the first lead of the match at 4-2 in the first set and extended the lead to 5-2. In the second set, he also claimed the first break to go up 3-2, which proved to be enough to secure the win.
 
Herrero Cuesta extended his unbeaten start to the season to 11-0 with a 6-4 6-1 win at No. 1 singles. The match proved to be more of a battle than the final score suggested with the players trading breaks in the first set before the DU senior held on for 6-4. He trailed 0-1 to begin the second set before breaking in three straight return games for an eventual 5-1 lead.
 
In the abandoned matches, DU was within a few points of a win at No. 4 singles after Yamaguchi broke early and then for a second time in the first set and quickly held a 5-1 lead in the second set.
 
Sancho Arbizu fought back from a break down in the first set to get things back on serve and then breaking once more late for 7-5. He was up a break at 3-2 when the match was left unfinished.
 
Schaber had just finished a tight first set that saw multiple breaks for both players in No. 3 singles. The second set had not yet begun.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team hosts its second match of the weekend when it welcomes Wichita State to Denver Tennis Park on Sunday, March 3, at 10:30 a.m. MT.
 
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