KUTZTOWN, Pa. (March 18, 2011) – A picture postcard afternoon featuring sunny and warm conditions greeted the Kutztown University men's tennis in its home opener against Eastern University Friday afternoon. The Golden Bears turned in a performance as perfect as the weather in defeating the Eagles, 9-0, in a non-conference match.
Kutztown (5-2 overall) captured its second straight victory. Eastern fell to 3-3 overall. Fueling the Golden Bear victory was sophomore Cameron O'Donnell (Allentown, PA/Parkland). The 2010 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) men's tennis freshman of the year won at No. 1 doubles with Tim Roenning (Hole, Norway/Norwegian College of Top Athletes) and at No. 5 singles.
“Spring break was fun, but it was nice to finally play on campus,” O'Donnell said. “It was a nice change to play No. 1 doubles. Last year, I was tentative during some of matches, but this year, I am a little more confident. I normally play No. 6 singles and I like it.”
Against the Division III Eagles, KU coach Suresh Ramamurthi was able to experiment with his normal line-up. Overall, eight KU players saw action against Eastern. In the singles portion of the match, Juan Gutierrez (San Jose, Costa Rica/SEK International School), Kaushik Das (Guwahati, Assam/National Open School), Rushi Amin (Orefield, PA/Lake Brantley), Andrew Zhu (Toronto, ON/Northview), O'Donnell, and Darren Krout (Gordonville, PA/Pequea Valley) were all straight set winners.
Krout was pushed at No. 6 singles. After claiming a 7-5 decision in the first set, he turned up the heat to claim a 6-0 victory in the second set. Gutierrez edged Eastern's Mike Roth, 6-4, in the first set before winning 6-2 in the second. The other four Golden Bears all won their singles matches either by 6-1 or 6-0 scores.
O'Donnell and Roenning were 8-6 winners at No. 1 doubles in the best match of the day. Ramamurthi was really pleased with his No. 2 doubles squad of Gutierrez and Amin dispatched Eastern's duo, 8-1. Kutztown's third doubles squad of Bilawaal Suri and Arpit Sharma (Kolkata, INDIA/) won their match, 8-3. Kutztown knows it will face more challenges as it aims to repeat as PSAC champions and qualify for the NCAA Division II Atlantic regionals again.
“I believe we have a lot of depth on our team,” O'Donnell said. “We all work hard and the competition is good in practice. We are looking forward to defending our title.”
Kutztown returns to action next Saturday, March 26 when it hosts the University of the District of Columbia at 1 p.m.
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