EVANSTON, Illinois – The University of Denver men's tennis team (5-2, 0-0 Summit) posted a 5-2 win over DePaul in a neutral-site match hosted by Northwestern on Saturday afternoon.
Denver started off by winning the doubles point before senior
Raffaello Papajcik clinched the dual for DU a 4-2. Freshman
Aaron Beduhn finished off play with a three-set win to give Denver a fifth point on the day.
Doubles:
A slightly reworked doubles lineup came away with the point for DU, thanks to wins from Beduhn/Papajcik and
Theo Coats/
Connor Robb-Wilcox. Denver got on the board first with a 6-3 win from Beduhn/Papajcik on court 3, getting the critical break in the fifth game before adding one more break to seal it.
DePaul stayed alive for the point with a win at the top of the lineup, but Denver's Coats/Robb-Wilcox gave DU the 1-0 lead shortly afterward. They opened the match with a break and stretched the lead to 5-2 before successfully closing it out at 6-4.
Singles:
Coats grabbed a 2-0 lead for Denver overall in one of only two singles matches to end after just two sets on the day – and doing so at the No. 2 position for the first time in his career. The sophomore opened with a bagel in the first set, his first of the 2026 dual season so far. He then rallied back from a break down in the second to win four consecutive games to take it, 6-4.
DePaul got on the board with a win in straight sets at No. 4 singles, but sophomore
Samuel Rovai put Denver back up by two points and within a point of the win after taking the No. 3 match in three sets. An early break turned into a 6-4 first-set win for the Pioneer, though he gave up his serve in his second service game of the second set, which was all DePaul's Pablo Torres Almeida needed to get to a decisive set. A break in the fourth game set Rovai up for an eventually 6-1 dominant win in the final frame.
The Blue Demons drew the scoreboard to 3-2 after claiming the No. 5 singles match in three sets, though it would be their final match won on the day.
DU's Papajcik was within two games of a straight-sets win in the top singles match, but a missed overhead sent things to a third set. He seized control early with a break in the third game of the final set and then broke for a second time in what would be the final game to clinch the dual for Denver up 6-3.
Beduhn wrapped up play just a few minutes after Papajcik to give DU its final score of 5-2. After going down a break early in the first set, he fought back to get to a tiebreak and turned in a convincing 7-2 result. The DU freshmen ended up in a third set that stayed on serve through the first 11 games but seized the break for a 7-5 win in the set and for the match.
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team plays again in Evanston for a second day in row, taking on host Northwestern on Sunday, February 22, at 12 p.m. CT/11 a.m. MT.
