Riverside, CA—The UC Riverside Men's Tennis Team notched their first victory of the season, 7-0, over Hope International in the first match of the double-header Saturday, before falling to Grand Canyon, 3-4, in the afternoon match.
UCR 7, Hope International 0
Full Match Results
Hope International's Rae/Trifunovic doubles team outpointed UC Riverside's Benjamin Kilchherr and Gilbert Chung, 6-3, in the first doubles match of the day. The Highlanders' pairing of Kyle McCann and Pawel Jankowiak outlasted the Royals' Romero/Voisin, 6-4, to take the second match. With the doubles match wins tied 1-1, UCR took the doubles point with a win by default in the third doubles matchup.
In singles play, UCR swept all five matches played and surrendered no more than one game in all but one set played, aside from Benjamin Kilchherr's match. Kilchherr won his first set ,6-4, but Hope International's Kyle Rae battled back to take the second set, 6-7 (8). Kilchherr prevailed, winning the tiebreaker 10-7 to take the match.
Newcomers Benjamin Kilchherr, Pawel Jankowiak, and Bignesh Subramanyan earned their first singles victories as members of the Highlanders.
"A little shaky doubles, but guys played much better in singles. Obviously having five Freshmen, I would expect some nerves. I'm pleased with the 7-0 final score, but we need to step it up a level vs GSU." said Coach Johansson.
UCR 3, Grand Canyon 4
Full Match Results
In the second match of the day on the SRC courts, UCR fell 3-4 to Grand Canyon.
The Highlanders took two out of three double matches to earn the point, before dropping four of six singles matches. Freshman Vignesh Subramanyan won the second singles match, but Grand Canyon won the following three matches to take a 4-1 lead in singles. Sophomore Nabil Abdallah fought and finished the day off well, winning his match 7-6, 5-7, 10-8.
Coach Johansson on the loss; "GCU is a great team that won the WAC conference last season, so I am very pleased with how the guys competed. Clinching the doubles point with a 7-6 win at #2 after being down 4-1 was huge. Definitely had our chances to win this match at the score 2-2. We were up 3-1 in the third set at #2 singles and matchpoint at #4, while #5 Gilbert Chung took his match in a third set. However, great teams find the way to battle back and GCU did just that. Overall, it was the start I was hoping for and I'm excited to see what the guys will bring tomorrow vs Nevada."
The UC Riverside Men's Tennis Team hosts Nevada on Sunday at 2 pm.
