USAFA, Colorado – The University of Denver men's tennis team (6-4, 0-0 Summit) finished its weekend back in Colorado with a 5-2 road win at Air Force on Sunday afternoon.
 
After the doubles point went to the Falcons with a tiebreak in the third match to finish, Denver rallied to win five of the six singles matches.
 
Doubles:
The teams traded 6-2 wins in doubles before settling the first point with a tiebreak in the No. 2 match. DU's team of senior Ryoma Mishiro and sophomore Samuel Rovai spent the entire match on serve and began a comeback from 6-0 down in the breaker but ultimately saw the Air Force team of Moore/Tingleaf get the win, 7-3.
 
Denver won the top doubles match after graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox and sophomore Theo Coats broke in opening game and stretched their lead to 5-1 before going on to serve it out at love for 6-2.
 
Singles:
Denver won the first three singles matches to wrap up to get within a point of the victory up 3-1, starting with a straight-sets win from senior Raffaello Papajcik, who moved back to the No. 2 spot and lost only five games for his best singles results of the dual season thus far. He traded breaks early in the match before reclaiming a break lead for 3-1 and went on to lead 5-2, serving it out two games later. A break for Papajcik in the third game of the second set turned into another 5-2 lead. One more service hold, and the senior closed out the match.
 
Freshman Aaron Beduhn also won in straight sets for his second win of the weekend and his fifth of 2026 so far. He exchanged breaks early in his first set before going up 5-3 and successfully serving it out in the next game. The second set followed a similar pattern with Beduhn twice having a break lead, the second of which put him up 4-3 and ultimately became a 6-4 win.
 
Mishiro got back in the win column with another straight-sets victory for Denver. In the No. 4 spot, he fought back from a 5-2 deficit in the first set to win five consecutive games to claim a 7-5 win. He carried that momentum into the second set, breaking in the opening game and then adding a second break for 5-2 before serving it out for 6-2.
 
Air Force stayed alive after winning the No. 5 match, but Coats clinched the dual for Denver in a three-set fight at No. 3 singles. He broke to start the match and turned it into a 6-1 win in the first set, but Air Force's AJ Moore responded by turning around the second set for a 6-4 win and sending the match to a third set. Coats responded quickly, jumping out to a 3-0 lead and breaking for a second time in what would be the final game for 6-2.
 
Just a minute or so later, sophomore Rovai finished off play with a fifth point for Denver, also winning in three sets after moving to the top singles spot for just the third time in his career. He easily claimed the first set with a bagel, his first such score in any set this dual season. Rovai held a lead early in the second set, but Air Force's Phillip Deaton fought back with two breaks of his own to force the match to a deciding set. Things started on serve in the third and remained that way until traded breaks late resulted in a tiebreak. Deaton started with a 3-0 lead, but Rovai answered with six straight points won to get to match point up 6-3. The Falcon player drew level at 6-6, but Rovai won two of the final three points to clinch it, 9-7.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team continues a six-match road trip when it plays at New Mexico on Friday, March 6, and then at Northern Arizona on Saturday, March 7.