DENVER – The No. 71-ranked University of Denver men's tennis team (11-5, 1-0 Summit) started its final Summit League schedule with a 6-1 win over Illinois State at Denver Tennis Park on Friday morning.
For a sixth consecutive match, Denver won the doubles point before going on to clinch the dual with a 4-1 lead. DU finished off play with two more wins including in the only singles match that went beyond a second set.
Doubles:
With just five combined games lost in the two clinching doubles matches, Denver took an early 1-0 lead on the day.
Graduate student
Connor Robb-Wilcox and sophomore
Theo Coats collected their 15
th win together during the 2025-25 season and their team-best 10
th in a dual match, dropping just two games at No. 1 doubles for the third time since January. The Pioneers went two-for-two in break opportunities, first gaining the advantage for 2-1 and then extending the lead at 5-2 before serving it out at love.
Clinching the point for DU was the No. 2 team of senior
Ryoma Mishiro and sophomore
Samuel Rovai. Like Coats/Robb-Wilcox, they broke in the penultimate game of the match, though their break came after the first seven games all went to the serving team. Up 5-3, they gave DU another love service hold to seal it.
In the day's only unfinished match, senior
Raffaello Papajcik and freshman
Aaron Beduhn were tied at 4-4 when DU had clinched the point. The two Pioneers had rallied back from a break down to level things to get back on serve in the seventh game.
Singles:
Four of the five singles matches to end in straight sets went to Denver, starting with Rovai win at the No. 2 spot with just three games lost for his best result in 10 wins during the 2026 dual season so far. He broke in each of his first two service games and led 5-0 on his way to a 6-1 first set. In the third game of the second set, he broke for a 2-1 lead and extended it for 5-2 before successfully serving it out in the next game.
Robb-Wilcox matched Rovai with three games lost as well, inverting his sets from the sophomore for a 6-2 6-1 win that was also his 10
th in a dual match so far. After going up 2-0 to begin play, he used a four-game win streak to secure the first set. ISU's Jett Leong held to begin the second set, but that would be his only game won in the frame before Robb-Wilcox went on a six-game tear to finish it off and put DU within a point of the dual.
Illinois State stayed alive with a win at No. 6 singles, but Mishiro clinched it for DU just a few minutes later at No. 4 singles. He was broken in the match's first game but got back on level terms at 2-2 as part of a five-game win streak that saw him go ahead, 5-2, on his way to a 6-2 win. The DU senior earned what would be the only break of the second set in the third game.
Papajcik won the last match to end in straight sets. A break for 3-1 carried him to a 5-3 lead, and he added a second break in what would be the final game of the first set for a 6-2 advantage. ISU's Tomas Valencia broke in the first game of the second set, but Papajcik answered with a break of his own to even things up at 3-3. The set remained on serve until the 12
th and final game when the Pioneer senior finished off the match at 7-5.
Coats won his team-best 24
th match of the year and his third in a row from a set down. The comeback began late in the second set, which remained on serve until the Denver sophomore broke in the 10
th game to take it, 6-4, and sending things to a match tiebreak. Things were all-even at the first two changeovers, but Coats won four of the final five points, winning it, 10-7.
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team plays again at Denver Tennis Park for the second time in as many days for another Summit League dual against Oral Roberts on Saturday, April 4, at 1 p.m. MT.
