DENVER – The University of Denver men's tennis team (3-0, 0-0 Summit) earned its first sweep of the young 2025 dual season, tallying a 7-0 victory over Montana State at Denver Tennis Park on Sunday.
 
After a contentious battle for the doubles point, the Pioneers raced through singles, winning all six matches in straight sets.
 
Doubles:
The day's first point came down to near simultaneous finishes in the Nos. 2 and 3 doubles matches. DU jumped out to a quick lead in the top match up with graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox and senior Rikuto Yamaguchi easing into a 6-1 win.
 
The last two matches ended within a minute of each other, starting with MSU staying alive briefly after sneaking out a 6-4 win on Court 2. Moments later, Denver senior Daniel Sancho Arbizu and freshman Theo Coats clinched the point in DU's favor with a break in the final game, putting them at 3-0 as a doubles team on the weekend.
 
Singles:
Freshman Samuel Rovai continued his perfect start to his collegiate dual-match career, winning in straight sets set again and dropping only three games on Sunday. He broke in his first return game and started a seven-game win streak that continued into the second set. The Swedish native closed out the match by winning five of the final six games.
 
Yamaguchi, too, joined Rovai in winning his third singles match in as many played to begin the 2025 dual season and also did so without dropping a set all weekend. For the second day in a row, he won both of his sets, 6-2, and lost exactly four games in all three of his singles matches on the weekend.
 
Junior Ryoma Mishiro won his first dual singles match as a Pioneer and claimed the clinching point in Denver's favor. He quickly jumped out to a 4-0 lead and eventually closed out the opening set, 6-4. The second set mirrored the first with a 4-0 lead for Mishiro before he served it out at 6-3.
 
Sancho Arbizu became the third DU player to register a perfect 3-0 record on the weekend in singles. In the first set, he turned a 4-0 lead to and 6-2 win, converting two of four break chances without facing one against his own serve. The second set proved tighter than the first, sitting at 4-all midway through before Sancho Arbizu captured a critical break at love in the ninth game and successfully defended his serve in the match's final points.
 
For the second straight day, junior Raffaello Papajcik collected a straight-sets win at No. 2 singles, finishing with two 6-4 wins on Sunday. After going down an early break, he rallied with a five-game win streak on his way to winning the first set. He broke in his first return game of the second set, which proved to be all he needed to seal the win.
 
The weekend's final point came from Robb-Wilcox, who finished as the fourth Denver player to go undefeated across the team's three duals and also not lose a single set. The first set was a battle of momentum with Robb-Wilcox winning the first four games before his opponent answered with his own four-game win streak. The DU graduate student responded with a strong return game in what would be the set's final game for 7-5. In the second set, Robb-Wilcox again went on a length game win streak, this time claiming the final five games and successfully serving out the match.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team heads to Ohio State for the 2025 ITA Kickoff Weekend on January 25-26. DU is the site's No. 3 seed and will play No. 2 seed Princeton on Saturday, January 25, at 1 p.m. ET/11 a.m. MT.
 
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