Elsah, ILL. -- Principia men's tennis came to play and play hard.  Coach Bartelmo of Illinois College continues to build his roster of players and has done well.  His athletes came to play hard too, and although IC is strongest at the top, their team has grown deeper since last season.  The Panthers have also grown, and that showed tonight as match ups similar to last year were just as tough, but the momentum stayed on Principia's side match for match giving them an almost clean sweep.  The "almost" part fell upon the #1 singles match between Miguel Vaca of Illinois College and the Panther's Greg Sovie.  Sovie took the first set 6-3 while Vaca managed the second set after the two traded a handful of service breaks, to equal the next set score to 6-3, sending the pair into a deciding super tie breaker.  Vaca built on the momentum of his second set win into the first several points of the breaker, pushing Sovie mentally to try to climb back out.   But the weight of 5 match points up proved too much to overcome for Sovie, deciding the match for Vaca, giving the Panthers their only loss of the night.

Principia swept the doubles matches across the board:

1)      Sovie/ Swan d. Vaca/ Connolly   8-4

2)      Kitchingman / Kenworthy  d.  Otuchanev/Salazar  8-0

3)      Wagstaff / Kratz d.  Lawal/Walter  8-0

Principia Singles Results:

1)      Vaca  of IC  d.  Sovie  6-3, 3-6, (10-4)

2)      Kitchingman d. Otuchanev  6-0, 6-0

3)      Kenworthy d. Salazar  6-1, 6-2

4)      Swan d. Connolly  6-2, 6-3

5)      Wagstaff d. Lawal  6-1, 6-0

6)      Griswold d. Walter 6-1, 6-0

The Panthers meet next week at home against Illinois Bellville, please come and support the team!