Huskers Come Up Short Against Drake

Lincoln - The Nebraska men's tennis team came up just short against the No. 50 Drake Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon at the Nebraska Tennis Center, losing 4-3. The No. 67 Huskers fell to 4-3 on the year, while Drake won its 27th straight regular season match and improved to 7-0 on the season.

Nebraska Head Coach Kerry McDermott had a colorful rendition of the team's hard-fought battle with the Bulldogs, in which his team wound up on the losing end.

"I felt like we went down to the O.K. Corral and had a big shootout," said McDermott. "But at the end, we were a few bullets short."

The match started out with three competitive and close doubles matches, but the Huskers couldn't close the deal and lost all three, 8-6 at No. 1, 9-7 at No. 2 and 8-6 at No. 3.

"We really felt like the doubles was going to be a huge difference, and it proved to be," McDermott said.

The Huskers went into the singles matches knowing that they needed to make up some ground. NU fell behind 2-0 after freshman Calin Paar had a hard time building any kind of rhythm, as he lost at No. 1 singles to Drake's Maor Zirkin, 6-1, 6-1. Nebraska stormed back to tie the match at 2-2 after junior Renato Melo defeated Mauricio Ballivian 6-3, 6-1 at No. 4 singles and junior Hendrik Stahmer topped Ricardo Lau 6-3, 6-3 at No. 3 singles.

Drake then took a 3-2 lead after Dalibor Pavic, the 16th-ranked player in the nation in singles, beat NU's David Bendheim at No. 2 singles, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Senior Mark Tate, who has been battling injuries all season, came through for the Huskers in a big way at No. 6 singles, defeating Guilherme Marsiglia 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (3), to even the score at 3-3.

The final match being played was between NU's Francois Van Impe and Drake's Bokang Setshogo at No. 5 singles. Setshogo won the first set 7-5, but Van Impe forced a third set after winning the second set tiebreaker. The NU sophomore, who also had to go three sets in his match Saturday night against DePaul, fell just short, losing the third set 6-4, giving Drake the 4-3 victory.

"It was a really good match," said McDermott. "You can't really get down on the guys, because they battled hard and played well. I think we're going to have a lot of these during the year. We'll be a better team in the long run, and I think we're starting to find our identity, but we still have to keep working."

Nebraska will travel west next weekend for its first road match against Fresno State. They then will play in the H.E.B. Tournament in Corpus Christi, Texas, from Feb. 29-March 2 before returning to Lincoln for a March 7 match against Western Michigan.

Results
Drake 4, Nebraska 3

Doubles
No. 1 Pavic/Zirkin (Drake) def. Bendheim/Schneider (NU), 8-6
No. 2 Lau/Setshogo (Drake) def. Melo/Paar (NU), 9-7
No. 3 Ballivian/Mendoza (Drake) def. Stahmer/Van Impe (NU), 8-6

Singles
No. 1 Maor Zirkin (Drake) def. Calin Paar (NU), 6-1, 6-1
No. 2 Dalibor Pavic (Drake) def. David Bendheim (NU), 6-4, 7-6 (4)
No. 3 Hendrik Stahmer (NU) def. Ricardo Lau (Drake), 6-3, 6-3
No. 4 Renato Melo (NU) def. Mauricio Ballivian (Drake), 6-3, 6-1
No. 5 Bokang Setshogo (Drake) def. Francois Van Impe (NU), 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4
No. 6 Mark Tate (NU) def. Guilherme Marsiglia (Drake), 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (3)