ELSAH, IL – The Principia Men's Tennis team launched their season on Saturday as they hosted the Spires from the University of Saint Mary, a solid NAIA team from Kansas City. The Panthers were challenged at the top of the lineup from the get go, but they rose to the occasion in doubles play by winning two of the three matches to head into singles with a 2-1 head start. Principia had several close singles battles as two of them going into a 10-point tiebreaker, where Principia rose to wins in both. Overall, the Panthers won the dual match with a 7-2 total score over the Spires.
Nacho Cachaza and
Ernesto Botero teamed up at #2 doubles for a decisive 8-1 victory, while
Kuda Sandi and
Rafter Sprague teamed at #3 for an equally emphatic 8-2 victory. Botero, Sandi, and Sprague all continued their strong play into singles as they only dropped 8 games combined in three straight set wins.
Two of the most memorable victories of the day belonged to
Jesús Soto Bossa and
Álvaro Martín Moliz, who both came back from a set down to force a super breaker. Bossa would dominate his tiebreaker 10-3 at #2 singles, while Moliz battled out a 10-7 win at #4 singles.
After working very hard the last 3 weeks to prepare for their first competition today, the team has set themselves up to a solid start of the spring season. Although there is still a long road ahead this season, the Panther men will clearly be competitive and utilize their depth throughout the lineup to offer a challenging contest to their upcoming opponents. It must also be said that the Spires showed a lot of competitive promise today for a very new tennis program at Saint Mary. We're confident that this should be a nice relationship for the two programs going forward into the future.
Up Next: The Principia men will travel to Illinois Wesleyan University next Saturday for a tri-match against the host Titans as well as Monmouth College.
