Huskers Lose Tight Battle to No. 52 Denver, 5-2

Lincoln, Neb. - The Nebraska men's tennis team fought hard but fell to No. 52 Denver, 5-2, on Friday at the Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center.

Nebraska (2-1) began Friday's match with doubles play. Marc Hermann and Scott Elsass fell at the No. 3 spot before Denver earned the doubles point when Yannik James and Diogo Rocha edged the Husker duo of Ford Zitch and Andrew Dzulynsky, 6-4, at the No. 2 spot. With the doubles point secured by Denver, Nebraska's No. 1 doubles tandem of brothers Dusty and Toby Boyer did not finish their match, although they led 6-5, when the match was stopped.

In singles action, Nebraska dropped the first two matches when Dzulynsky and Zitch fell at No. 4 and 5 singles, respectively. But the Huskers fought back to win the next two matches. At the No. 2 spot, Hermann dispatched Denver's Henry Craig in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Toby Boyer then rallied for a victory over the Pioneers' David Fox at No. 3 singles. Boyer dropped the first set, 3-6, but stormed back to give Nebraska a point by winning the final two sets by identical 6-1 margins.

Dusty Boyer took the first set from Rocha at No. 1 singles, 6-3, before Rocha stormed back to win the next sets. The Huskers also lost a hard-fought battle at the No. 6 spot, where Tomislav Antoljak took on Denver's Jesse Rudder-Hook. Antoljak was a 6-3 winner in set one, before suffering a close 7-5 loss in set two. The third set went to a tiebreaker, where Rudder-Hook won the tiebreaker, 7-3, to win the third set 7-6.

After suffering its first loss of the season, Nebraska will get another shot at a ranked opponent on Sunday, when the Huskers host the 46th-ranked Oregon Ducks at the Dillon Tennis Center. Admission into the match is free, and fans can follow live stats on Huskers.com.

Doubles 

No. 1 Dusty Boyer/Toby Boyer (NEB) dnf. Alex Gasson/Henry Craig (DU) 6-5

No. 2 Yannik James/Diogo Rocha (DU) def. Ford Zitsch/Andrew Dzulynsky (NEB) 6-4

No. 3 Jess Rudder-Hook/David Fox (DU) def. Scott Elsass/Marc Herrmann (NEB) 6-0

Order of Finish: 3,2

Singles 

No. 1 Diogo Rocha (DU) def. Dusty Boyer (NEB) 3-6, 6-1, 6-4

No. 2 Marc Herrmann (NEB) def. Henry Craig (DU) 6-3, 6-3

No. 3 Toby Boyer (NEB) def. David Fox (DU) 3-6, 6-1, 6-1

No. 4 Yannik James (DU) def. Andrew Dzulynsky (NEB) 6-0, 6-2

No. 5 Alex Gasson (DU) def. Ford Zitsch (NEB) 6-2, 6-4

No. 6 Jesse Rudder-Hook (DU) def. Tomislav Antoljak (NEB) 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(7-3)

Order of Finish: 4,5,2,3,1,6