BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Kutztown University men's tennis faced a double dose of ranked opponents on Saturday at Bloomsburg's Burt Reese Tennis Center. The Golden Bears suffered a 7-0 loss to regionally-ranked Edinboro, before falling to nationally-ranked No. 40 Mercyhurst, 5-2, in PSAC matches.
EDINBORO 7, KUTZTOWN 0
Nolan Perugini (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) and
Renato Santos (Seixal, Portugal/Fernão Mendes Pinto) earned their fifth doubles victory of the season, 7-5, over the Fighting Scots' Kevin Mboko and Julius Schulte at No. 1, but Edinboro (3-0 PSAC, 13-4) won the remaining two doubles matches and swept singles for a 7-0 victory.
Edinboro, ranked fifth in the ITA Atlantic Region, recorded straight-set victories in all but one singles match. Perugini took the second set off Mateus Santos at first singles before dropping the super tiebreaker in a 6-2, 4-6, 10-8 defeat.
Benjamin Kelly (Medina, Ohio/Highland) won a combined six games off Tommy Hsu at fourth singles in a 6-4, 6-2 loss, while
Renato Santos (Seixal, Portugal/Fernão Mendes Pinto) hung in against Edinboro's Mauricio Santos in a 6-3, 6-1 setback.
#40 MERCYHURST 5, KUTZTOWN 2
Mercyhurst swept doubles, but the Golden Bears picked up singles wins from No. 1
Nolan Perugini (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) and No. 3
Josh Carl (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) against the ITA's 40th-ranked team in Division II --and the No. 2 ranked team in the Atlantic Region.
While the Lakers (4-0 PSAC, 14-2) did enough in singles to claim the match regardless of the doubles point, Kutztown nearly came up with a pair of matches that would have flipped that point in its favor.
Perugini and
Renato Santos (Seixal, Portugal/Fernão Mendes Pinto) fell in a tiebreaker at first doubles to Unai Amilleta Gonzalez and Sebastian Pardo, 7-6 (5), while Carl and
Benjamin Kelly (Medina, Ohio/Highland) also dropped a 7-6 (5) decision in a tiebreaker to Ruairidh Fraser and Arseniy Sklyarov at second doubles.
Perguini, a senior from Reading, moved a match over .500 in singles (8-7) with a comeback 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 victory over Fraser at first singles. Teammate Carl also rallied past Pardo 2-6, 6-1, 10-5 at third singles.
Saturday's losses dropped KU's record to 1-12 on the season and 1-3 in PSAC play. The Golden Bears will host Saint Thomas Aquinas in a non-conference match this coming Thursday at 2:30 p.m., before wrapping up their home slate with Senior Day against Bloomsburg on Saturday, April 20, at 11 a.m.
