Northwest tennis programs complete busy Saturday
HENRY JANSSEN/DAILY FORUM
Northwest’s Mauro Tete lobs one back in his victory versus Southwest Baptist’s Ferenc Agoston on Saturday afternoon. Tete won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, and Northwest defeated its rival 5-4.
The drizzly conditions held off enough for the Northwest Missouri State University tennis teams to take to the stage on Saturday afternoon Frank Grube Courts.
Southwest Baptist’s No. 20-ranked men came into town alongside the No. 16 ranked women for a 10 a.m. start, and Washington University (St. Louis) men visited the Bearcats later in the day.
Northwest’s men defeated the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association’s other Bearcats 5-4, and the No. 18-ranked side improved to 11-2 and 3-0 within the conference, but the loss to Washington University slid them to 11-3.
The women were defeated by SBU’s No. 16-ranked lineup 6-3, and they fall to 4-9 on the season and 2-2 within the conference.
Baptist’s teams improve to 9-2 and 3-1 in the conference on the men’s end, and 13-2 and 5-1 in women’s.
“Both matches were very close,” Northwest coach Mark Rosewell said. “They’re a rival, and for the men it meant a lot for the conference championship probably, so it was important. I thought the whole team played extremely well. All the singles were close, so it was a great team effort today.”
The only men defeated by Baptist in singles were Romain Boissinot in the No. 1 slot and Josef Altmann at No. 4. Boissinot faced No. 4-ranked Sherif Abohabaga and was defeated in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Altman won his first set against Raul Cabalero 7-6 before falling 6-1, 6-2. No. 2 Northwest player Sergi Fontcuberta conceded only one game in two sets. Mauro Tete, Aymeric Autones, and Fin Glowick each picked up singles victories.
Boissinot and Fontcuberta picked up the only Northwest doubles win, 8-4.
On the women’s side, Tania Teruel and Tess Lovig were the only singles to notch victories. After dropping the first set 7-5, Teruel’s opponent Lucia Diaz withdrew from the match. Lovig defeated Beatrix Federer 6-2, 6-0, and she also picked up a doubles win paired with Margaux Jacquet, 8-6.
Later in the afternoon, Northwest fell to No. 6 Division III side Wash U, 7-2. None of the regulars were featured on the singles side, and Rosewell said he was preserving his team’s energies for Sunday’s trip to Nebraska-Kearney.
“We put our B-team in in the singles,” the 35-year coach said. “We beat Washington 9-0 last year. That was one of the reasons we went with some of our other guys, so we could be relatively fresh against Nebraska-Kearney.”
No singles player won for the Bearcats, but Jorge Serrano forced a third-set, 11-9 decision against No. 43 Johnny Wu. Northwest’s regular top-two pairs, Serrano/Tete and Fontcuberta/Boissinot, picked up 8-3 and 8-6 victories, respectively. Autones and Altmann were defeated at the No. 3 doubles spot, 8-2.
The Nebraska-Kearney Lopers are ranked No. 29 in the ITA’s most recent rankings on March 22.
“They’re extremely talented, although they’re not where they want to be yet,” Rosewell said. “We’re playing well, though.”
HENRY JANSSEN/DAILY FORUM
Aniek Kolen, No. 2 singles for Northwest, squares up on a shot in Saturday’s loss to Lani Tuemmers. Southwest Baptist won the match 6-3.
HENRY JANSSEN/DAILY FORUM
No. 1 Northwest singles player Lorena Rivas Jarolim strokes the ball back onto the opponent’s side in Saturday’s 6-3 team loss to Southwest Baptist. She was defeated by Lara Soares in straight sets.
