SEWARD, Neb. – The Concordia University Men’s Tennis team went up against top notch competition in its first dual of the 2021-22 season. The Bulldogs came up just shy of securing the doubles point in what ultimately went down as a 6-1 loss at the hands of Iowa Central Community College on a cloudy and cool Saturday (Oct. 2) afternoon in Seward. Jack Kitson accounted for the lone Concordia team point.
While presiding over both women’s and men’s matches on Saturday, Head Coach Cam Long made his home and dual debut.
“We played tough against a team that finished ranked 10th last season in the JUCO national rankings,” Long said. “This match gives me confidence moving forward and shows we can hang with any team, as we were a tiebreaker away from taking the doubles point. Playing this match will only help make us better long term. Now we’ve got one week left of our fall season to build some positive momentum heading into the offseason and spring.”
The Tritons just barely got the best of Concordia in doubles while squeaking out the tiebreaker at No. 1, where Zamani Moyo and Riku Sugiyama edged out Eduardo Luzzi and Eduardo Rojas. At the No. 2 doubles spot, the Bulldog combo of Jeremiah Berryman and Joseph Bindl emerged with a 6-3 win. At the final spot, Kitson and Juan Rabellino were upended, 6-2.
Kitson got Concordia on the board in singles with his win at No. 6, 7-5, 6-3, over Luis Fuentes. At the Nos. 1 and 2 singles spots, respectively, Luzzi and Isaac Howes both competed wire-to-wire in close defeats. Luzzi won the second set of his match and Howes took the first set in his battle. The rest of the singles lineup featured Bindl at No. 3, Berryman at No. 4 and Rojas at No. 5.
The Bulldogs are looking to build off a 2020-21 campaign that finished with Concordia as the GPAC runner up in both the regular season and postseason. The Bulldogs went 10-6 overall. Meanwhile, Iowa Central went 9-3 last season.
A fall season that has included two tournaments will conclude next Saturday (Oct. 9) when Concordia hosts NCCA Division II William Jewell College (Mo.) for 11:30 a.m. CT first serve. The Bulldogs picked up a 4-3 win last season over William Jewell.