Huskers Cruise Past Lopers

Lincoln - The Nebraska men's tennis team won their 10th match of the season over in-state foe Nebraska-Kearney, 7-0, on Tuesday. The match was Nebraska's last at home this season, as it wraps up its regular-season schedule this weekend at Baylor and at Oklahoma. The Huskers improved to 10-13 with the win, while UNK dropped to 11-4.

The two teams started off with singles play, where the Huskers were dominant. For only the fourth time all season, Nebraska won all six singles matches, and each win was in straight sets, highlighted by a 6-0, 6-0 sweep by senior Karl Jones at No. 6 singles in Jones' last home match as a Husker.

Calin Paar played at No. 1 singles for the first time in nearly a month and a half, and won by an easy margin of 6-2, 6-3. Senior Mark Tate, also playing in his last ever home match at NU, also won 6-2, 6-3 at No. 5 singles. Francois Van Impe and Renato Melo each recorded 6-0, 6-1 victories at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively, while David Bendheim won 6-2, 6-0 at the No. 2 position.

“I thought our guys played really, really good singles,” said head coach Kerry McDermott. “We had good intensity and we did what we needed to do.”

McDermott utilized new doubles teams at each position as the Huskers took two of the three doubles matches to take the doubles point and make the match 7-0. Bendheim and Van Impe won 8-5 at No. 2 and freshman Taylor Boney and Jones won 8-3 at No. 3. The freshmen duo of Paar and Tobias Schneider fell at No. 1, 8-4.

The Huskers will travel to Waco, Texas to take on Baylor on Friday before making a stop in Norman, Okla., on Sunday to play Oklahoma. Nebraska is looking to record its first Big 12 conference win of the season this weekend against the Bears and the Sooners.

“We're looking forward to this weekend because we haven't won a match in the Big 12 yet this season,” McDermott said. “We're running out of opportunities but we feel like we've had some spots where guys have played well but not all together as a team, so hopefully this weekend we can put it together as a team.”

Results
Nebraska 7, Nebraska-Kearney 0

Doubles
No. 1 A. Espinosa/Jacome (UNK) def. Paar/Schneider (NU), 8-4
No. 2 Bendheim/Van Impe (NU) def. Mercier/Voigt (UNK), 8-5
No. 3 Boney/Jones (NU) def. F. Espinosa/Angst (UNK), 8-3

Singles
No. 1 Calin Paar (NU) def. William Jacome (UNK), 6-2, 6-3
No. 2 David Bendheim (NU) def. Drew Mercier (UNK), 6-2, 6-0
No. 3 Francois Van Impe (NU) def. Andres Espinosa (UNK), 6-0, 6-1
No. 4 Renato Melo (NU) def. Stefan Voigt (UNK), 6-0, 6-1
No. 5 Mark Tate (NU) def. Felipe Espinosa (UNK), 6-2, 6-3
No. 6 Karl Jones (NU) def. Aaron Angst (UNK), 6-0, 6-0