Spartans Earn Convincing Victories Against IUPUI, Wright State

Jan. 15, 2011

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State men's tennis team opened its 2011 dual season with a pair of wins over IUPUI and Wright State on Saturday at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility. The Spartans swept the Jaguars, 7-0, before topping the Raiders in the evening, 6-1.

The morning started off with three consecutive doubles victories as seniors John Stratton and Austin Brooks defeated Ivan Mojsejev and Dan Klingenberg, 8-1. Fellow senior Clark Richardson and freshmen Drew Lied earned a victory over Joe Hammond and Bren Vaslakis, 8-3, while juniors Denis Bogatov and Mat Nelson defeated Joel Modesitt and Nick Volz by a score of 8-6.

The Spartans continued action in singles play, earning another perfect record with six victories. In the two closet matches of the day, Brooks earned a hard-fought victory by defeating Nick Volz, 6-0, 4-6 (15-13), while sophomore Christian Roehmer defeated Modesitt by the score of 6-7 (0) 6-3 (10-1). Senior Jason Norville and junior Ronnie Hulewicz both cruised to 6-0, 6-1 victories against Chase Emerson and Mojsejev, respectively. Freshman Aaron Pfister defeated Klingenberg, 6-3, 6-3, while freshman Ryan Richmond defeated Hammond, 6-3, 6-2, to round out the first match in Saturday's doubleheader.

Action continued in the afternoon with the second part of the doubleheader against Wright State. The Spartans continued their winning ways, taking all three doubles matches and taking five of six in singles play, ending in a 6-1 team victory.

The only loss came against Brian Dredge, who took down Richardson, 7-6 (3) 6-4. The doubles pair of Hulewicz and Bogatov earned a victory over Bennon and Joblin, 8-7 (4), while Pfister and Norville and Roehmer and Brooks defeated Landon Neuman and Evan Neuman (8-2) and Arguello and Dredge (8-3), respectively. Bogatov earned his singles victory over Arguello by a score of 6-2 6-3. Lied and Nelson both took 6-4, 6-2 victories, as Nelson defeated Bennoui and Lied took down Landon Neuman. In the two closest matches of the competition, Richmond defeated Evan Neuman, 3-6, 6-3 (1) (6) and Stratton earned a victory over Hayden Joblin, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

The Spartans will continue action next weekend at home as they host Cleveland State and Youngstown State in their second doubleheader of the season on January 22. Action begins at 10 a.m