BOISE, Idaho – The University of Denver men's tennis team (4-2, 0-0 Summit) found itself in a second highly-contested match in as many days but ultimately came up short at Boise State, 2-5, on Sunday morning.
 
Boise State claimed the doubles point, but Denver senior Raffaello Papajcik won the day's only straight-sets singles match to even up the scoreline at 1-1. DU players won five of the six first sets in singles and saw all but the No. 1 court go to third sets where Boise State finished the win.
 
Doubles:
The Broncos won in double with victories on the Nos. 1 and 3 courts to get the on the score board first. Denver's No. 2 team of senior Ryoma Mishiro and sophomore Samuel Rovai were at match point up 5-2 when the point was clinched, leaving the match unfinished.
 
Singles:
Only one of the singles matches ended in straight sets: senior Raffaello Papajcik's 7-5 6-4 win at No. 1 singles. He conceded his first service game of the match but fought back quickly to go up a break of his own for 5-3. BSU's Avery Tallakson, though, broke back for 5-5. Each of the final two games went to deuce points, both won by Papajcik to take the set. The DU senior then claimed a double-break lead at 3-0 to begin the second set and though he gave one break back, he was able to hold on for the win.
 
The final five singles matches each wrapped up within about 15 minutes of one another, all going to final sets, as Broncos players came out on top in three of them. At the No. 2 spot, Rovai used a late break to win the first set and rallied from a break down in the second set to get to a tiebreak, but BSU's Filip Soderqvist was able to force the third set that stayed on serve until a Boise State break in the eighth game that proved to be the decider.
 
Mishiro fought back from a set and a break down, winning four of the final five games in the second frame to get to the third. He held momentum and a two-break lead in the final set, but a lost service hold at deuce for 3-1 ended up being a turning point as Boise State's Carson Baker went on to win the set and the match.
 
Freshman Aaron Beduhn found himself in the most competitive third set of the day in singles. He first won the opening set, 6-4, and refocused after dropping the second set to break early in the third. The last set ended up back on serve before Beduhn dropped his service game at 4-4, setting up BSU's Julius Seifert to serve for the match where the DU freshman saved a match point to stay alive and break back. Beduhn held his own match point at deuce up 6-5 against Seifert's serve, but the players would up in a breaker where the Bronco claimed the win.
 
A couple minutes later, Boise State's Lukas Velik won what would be the host's final point of the dual at No. 5 singles. DU graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox fought through multiple traded breaks in his first set to win a tiebreak, 7-3, but early breaks in the next two frames set up Velik for a couple of wins.
 
Denver sophomore Theo Coats gave Denver a second point overall in the final match to wrap up. He went up a break lead in the third game of the match and held onto it all the way to a 6-4 first-set win. He narrowly lost the second set in a tiebreak but kept focus in the third set, which remained on serve until the eighth game when he broke to go up 5-3. BSU's Stewart Aronson stayed alive with a hold, but Coats successfully served it out in the next game.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team remains on the road for another week, heading to Northwestern for two matches on February 21-22 including a neutral-site dual against DePaul.