Huskers Fall To Sooners

Lincoln- The No. 49 Nebraska men’s tennis team fell to the No. 41 Oklahoma Sooners 4-3 on Sunday, at the Nebraska tennis center.  With the loss the Huskers’ record drops to 16-5 and 0-2 in conference play, while the Sooners improve to 11-7 and 1-3 in the Big 12.  The 4-3 defeat was the second one-point setback for the Huskers on the weekend after falling to No. 7 Baylor on Saturday by the same score.

In doubles, the No. 1 duo of David Bendheim and Calin Paar (NU) fell behind quickly to Ionut Beleleu and Sergey Avdeyev (OU) 3-0, but the Huskers top pair battled back and eventually evened the match at 6-6. The OU pair, however, was too much for the Huskers as they took the next two sets and the match 8-6.  After going down with an injury in the first point of the No. 3 doubles match, senior Hendrik Stahmer (NU) pushed through his injury and helped teammate Francois Van Impe (NU) take down Blake Boswell and George Chanturia (OU) 8-4 at the No. 3 spot for the Huskers’ only victory in doubles play. 

Lindheim (NU) was most impressive for the Huskers in singles play as he took down Chanturia (OU) in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, at the No. 5 spot.  The win improves Lindheim’s record to 2-0 in Big 12 Conference play.  Aumueller (NU), who was the only Husker in the top four spots to win, was able to hold off a late surge by Pultr (OU) at the No. 3 spot, winning by the score of 6-4, 7-5.  Van Impe (NU) collected the last Husker victory of the day by defeating Blake Boswell (OU) in three sets. After dropping the first set 7-6, Van Impe came out in the second set and dominated, wining by the score of 6-1 to push the match into a tiebreaker, which he won 10-4.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

Head coach Kerry McDermott gave Oklahoma credit for playing more aggressively than the Huskers.

“Very disappointing we could only pull off one win in the top four spots,” McDermott said. “I knew in order to beat them (OU), we needed to compete a lot better than we did in the top four spots.  You have to give OU credit. They played a little bit stronger and better than we did today.  We have to move on and get ready for Oklahoma State.”

The Huskers continue play on Tuesday, April 7, when they travel to Sillwater, Okla., to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys.  First serve is set for 2 p.m.

Complete Results

NU 3, OU 4

Order of finish (2 1 3) (5 2 1 4 3 6)

Singles

No. 1 Andrei Daescu (OU) defeated David Bendheim (NU) 6-1, 6-3

No. 2 Sergey Avdeyev (OU) defeated Calin Paar (NU) 6-0, 6-4

No. 3 Christopher Aumueller (NU) defeated David Pultr (OU) 6-4, 7-5

No. 4 Ionut Beleleu (OU) defeated Hendrik Stahmer (NU) 6-3, 6-2

No. 5 Benedikt Lindheim (NU) defeated George Chanturia (OU) 6-0, 6-1

No. 6 Francois Van Impe (NU) defeated Blake Boswell (OU) 6-7, 6-1, 10-4

Doubles

No. 1 Beleleu/Avdeyev (OU) defeated Bendheim/Paar (NU) 8-6

No. 2 Daescu/Pultr (OU) defeated Aumueller/Lindheim (NU) 8-3

No. 3 Van Impe/Stahmer (NU) defeated Boswell/Chanturia (OU) 8-4