WICHITA, Kan. – The University of Denver men's tennis team (6-5, 0-0 Summit) put up a fight on the road but ultimately dropped its match at Wichita State, 2-5, on Sunday.
 
Denver kept things closer than the final scoreline suggested, battling through very tight third sets in the final to matches to wrap up and again doing so without its No. 2 singles player available.
 
Doubles:
DU started the day by capturing the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1 and 2, and doing so after WSU took an early lead with a win on Court 3. Senior Rikuto Yamaguchi and graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox leveled the battle for the doubles point with a break midway through the match as part of a four-game win streak to win the No. 1 match.
 
Freshman Theo Coats returned to play after missing DU's previous match, teaming back up with senior Daniel Sancho Arbizu to secure the point in Denver's favor with a 6-3 win at No. 2 doubles. After sitting at 3-3 midway through, they earned a break lead for 4-2 and backed it up with a second break to seal it.
 
Singles:
Wichita State evened up the team scoreboard with a straight-sets win at No. 3 singles. Sancho Arbizu recaptured the Denver lead with his eighth win in dual match play so far – and his eighth in straight sets. He went up 2-1 to start a six-game win streak to take the first set and added a seventh-straight game after winning the first game of the second set. He turned it into a 4-1 lead before closing it out, 6-3.
 
The Shockers again got back to even terms overall after winning at the No. 4 spot and then moved within a point of the victory with a final straight-sets win at No. 5 singles.
 
The final two matches that decided the dual both went to third sets, though WSU clinched the win in the No. 2 match. Play ended with No. 6 singles and a third-set tiebreak that also went the way of Wichita State.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team returns home for two matches at Denver Tennis Park, first hosting Utah State on Friday, February 21, before welcoming Jacksonville State on Sunday, February 23.
 
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