The third-ranked Panther men's tennis team played its first two matches of the spring on Sunday, picking up a victory over #19 Bates by a 7-2 score, followed by a 9-0 win over Babson. The matches took place in the Nelson Recreational Center. The Panthers (2-0) return to action on Friday at 5:00 p.m. against Colby in a match played at Dartmouth.
In the match against Bates (3-3, 0-1), the doubles tandem of Weston Brach and Nate Eazor started things off notching the team's first point with an 8-6 victory at No. 3 over Vidyut Yadav and Duane Davis. The No. 1 flight of Lubomir Cuba and Kyle Schlanger won 9-7 over Ben Rosen and Jacob Kauppila, while the second doubles team of Timo van der Geest and Peter Martin made it 3-0 with an 8-5 triumph over Josh Quijano and Josh Leiner.
In singles action, Schlanger claimed the team's fourth point at No. 2 with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Quijano, while Cuba clinched the match at the top spot with a 7-5, 0-6, 6-3 win against Rosen.
The Bobcats made the score 5-2 with wins from the No. 4 and No. 3 positions.
Eazor pushed the Panther advantage to 6-2 with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Yadav at No. 5, while Andre Xiao rounded out the scoring posting a 6-7 (1-7), 6-1, 10-3 win against Jacob Eisenberg at the bottom of the lineup.
Later in the day against Babson (2-1), the Panthers swept the doubles matches as the team of Cuba and Schlanger won by an 8-0 score over Alberto De Mendiola and Andre Libnic in the No. 1 flight. At No. 3, Brach and Eazor remained perfect for the day with an 8-2 win against Ben Roque and Cameron Gruss, while van der Geest and Martin posted a 9-7 triumph in the second spot versus Brandon Rosenbluth and Chris Kolesnik.
Shaking up the lineup a bit, the Panthers continued that success in singles play. In the No. 1 spot, van der Geest was victorious by scores of 6-0, 6-0 over De Mendiola, while Xiao clinched the match and the team's fifth point with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Kolesnik in the fourth spot. Alex Vanezis made the score 6-0 via a 6-2, 6-2 victory in the No. 2 slot against Libnic.
The final three victories for the Panthers came from Eazor over Rosenbluth at No. 3 (6-3, 6-2), Brach over Scott Riester in the sixth slot (6-0, 6-0) and Adam Guo at No. 5 over Dylan Levy (6-0, 6-1).
