The DU men’s tennis team continued to show great strides of success with a dominating 5-2 victory at No. 40 Minnesota on Friday and then a tough 4-3 defeat to No. 59 Middle Tennessee State.
“We had a pretty good weekend even though we came up a little short against Middle Tennessee, but that is tennis. It is never easy to beat a team like
Minnesota, especially at their home courts so that was a good team effort,” said senior Adam Holmstrom.
The No. 67 Pioneers started off in doubles play and had little problems as the duo of Andrew Landwerlen and David Simson won the No. 1 point with a 8-3 victory. Holmstrom and Ravjot Dhatt had to work hard for their point, 8-7 (0-5) and the combination of Niklas Persson and Kalle Rosen won 8-5.
In singles play No. 17 Holmstrom defeated No. 46 Raoul Schwark of Minnesota 6-1, 2-6 and 6-1 to get DU going strong. Persson, Simson and Rosen also found their way to victory as Landwerlen and Dhatt were defeated.
Denver looked to improve its unblemished 3-0 record against Sun Belt Conference foe Middle Tennessee on Saturday, also at Minnesota, but fell 4-3.
The Pioneers experienced a complete swing of results in doubles play against the Blue Raiders compared to what they did against Minnesota. The pair of Simson and Landwerlen fell 9-8 (7-2) while the duo of Holmstrom and Dhatt suffered an 8-4 defeat and Persson and Rosen lost 9-7.
In singles play, Holmstrom defeated Marc Rocafort 4-6, 7-5 and 6-1, Persson won his match 6-2 and 7-6 while Simson claimed the other Denver victory 6-0, 6-3.
“All the guys are working hard so we feel comfortable that we will not lose due to fitness or not being able to work, the other team must beat us,” said Holmstrom.
The Pioneers will next play Iowa and No. 60 Nebraska in Lincoln, Neb. ,this Saturday and Sunday.
Women’s tennis:
The No. 45 Pioneers continued their dominating start to the season with victories over Air Force, Wyoming and Washington State during the past weekend at the Air Force Academy.
Friday afternoon DU defeated Air Force 6-1 with junior transfer Mallory Voelker easily defeating Lauren Wilson 6-0, 6-0 in singles play and then combining with sophomore Julia Bauregger for a 8-0 win in doubles play. Sophomore Ute Schnoy (6-1, 6-0), junior Annette Aksdal (6-1, 6-0), Bauregger (6-3, 6-2) and freshman Bhavani Tirumurti also won singles matches for Denver.
On Saturday, the Pioneers once again had little problem as they defeated Wyoming 7-0. Voelker led the way with a 6-2, 6-2 win in singles play and then a commanding 8-0 victory with Bauregger in doubles play. Denver won all singles and doubles matches en route to the easy victory.
The winning continued on Sunday when DU defeated No. 50 Washington State 7-0. Voelker once again won her singles match, but this time was defeated with Bauregger in doubles play 8-3, which was the only match the Pioneers lost on the afternoon.
Denver will next be in action this weekend when they travel to Colorado on Saturday for a 5 p.m. showdown.
