Huskers Fall to No. 25 Oklahoma State 5-2

Stillwater, Okla. - The Nebraska men's tennis team opened the season with a 5-2 setback to No. 25 Oklahoma State at the Greenwood Tennis Center on Saturday.

The Huskers earned wins from Chris Hobgarski and Vasileios Stavropoulos at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, but Nebraska lost dropped a pair of close contests in the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, along with falling in the top two spots against the nationally ranked Cowboys.

NU also surrendered the doubles point with losses at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions prior to the start of singles competition. 

Nebraska's Dusty Boyer and Bradford Zitsch opened the spring campaing ranked No. 54 nationally in doubles, but settled for a 6-2 loss to OSU's No. 12 Jakob Sude and Arjun Kadhe at the No. 1 position.

At the No. 2 spot, Nebraska's Linus Erhart and Scott Elsass did not finish their match against Oklahoma State's Lucas Gerch and Tristan Meraut, after Huskers Marc Herrmann and Chris Hobgarski took a 6-0 loss to Lukas Finzelberg and Nicolai Ferrigno at No. 3. 

In singles play, Nebraska's Dusty Boyer, who entered the match ranked No. 64 nationally, dropped a 6-1, 6-3 decision to OSU's Jakob Sude, who was ranked 98th in the country.

At the No. 2 spot, Marc Herrmann suffered a 6-2, 6-3 setback to OSU's Lucas Gerch, before Vasileios Stavropoulos rolled past Leonard Gerch 6-4, 6-1 at the No. 6 position.

Linus Erhart lost a 6-4, 6-4 decision to OSU's Tristan Meraut at No. 3, before Husker Andrew Dzulynsky battled to a hard-fought 7-6 (2), 6-5 (6) setback to Lukas Finzelberg in te No. 5 spot.

Chris Hobgarski provided the Huskers with their second singles victory with a 6-3, 5-6 (6), 1-0 (10) win over Nicolai Ferrigno at the No. 6 position. 

The Huskers continue their spring season with a dual at Drake on Friday, Jan. 30, at 6 p.m., before battling Eastern Illinois on Saturday, Jan. 31, at 8 a.m. Both matches will be held on the Drake campus in Des Moines, Iowa. 

"We had some opportunities today against the No. 25 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys, and being our first match of the year I feel we have potential to be a very good team as the season progresses," said McDermott. "The short six game double sets are very quick and can take you by surprise so it will make things very interesting this year and today we played really well at No. 2 doubles but stumbled early at No. 1 and 3. In singles we had some great opportunities to make for an upset especially lower in the lineup with Chris Hobgarski and Vasileios Stavropoulos both winning at the No. 5 and 6 positions and then having some big opportunities at the No. 3 and 4 singles losing in some tight matches. Hopefully we will learn from this match and be ready to move forward to when we play Eastern Illinois and Drake in Des Moines, Iowa."

#25 Oklahoma State - 5

Nebraska - 2

Singles

Order of finish: 1, 2, 6, 4*, 3, 5

No. 1 – No. 98 Jakob Sude (OSU) def. Dusty Boyer (NEB), 6-1, 6-3

No. 2 – Lucas Gerch (OSU) def. Marc Herrmann (NEB), 6-2, 6-3

No. 3 – Lukas Finzelberg (OSU) def. Andrew Dzulynsky (NEB), 7-6 (2), 6-5 (6)

No. 4 – Tristan Meraut (OSU) def. Linus Erhart (NEB), 6-4, 6-4

No. 5 – Chris Hobgarski (NEB) def. Nicolai Ferrigno (OSU), 6-3, 5-6 (6), 1-0 (10)

No. 6 – Vasileios Stavropoulos (NEB) def. Leonard Gerch (OSU), 6-4, 6-1

 

Doubles

Order of finish: 3, 1

No. 1 – No. 12 Jacob Sude/Arjun Kadhe (OSU) def. No. 54 Dusty Boyer/Bradford Zitsch (NEB), 6-2

No. 2 – Lucas Gerch/Tristan Meraut (OSU) vs. Linus Erhart/Scott Elsass (NEB), 2-5 dnf

No. 3 – Lukas Finzelberg/Nicolai Ferrigno (OSU) def. Marc Herrmann/Chris Hobgarski, 6-0