BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- It turned out to be a marathon Saturday for the Kutztown University tennis teams, but for the Golden Bear men it was worth the wait.
Following the 1 p.m. women's match that lasted nearly five hours, the back half of the doubleheader inside Timothy Breidegam Fieldhouse finally got underway just after 6:30.
KU set the tone with a pair of wins in doubles play and captured three singles flights in straight sets to earn head coach
Wyatt Pauley his first victory with the program, 5-1, over the Greyhounds.
Similar to the postseason, Saturday's match concluded when the match was decided instead of being played to completion.
Sebastian Arizpe (Puebla, Mexico/Colegio Humboldt de Puebla) and
Justin Gincauskas (Mississauga, Ontario/Cawthra Park Secondary) put the Maroon and Gold (1-1) ahead with an 8-3 triumph over Anthony Ronca and Wyatt Marshall at second doubles. Kutztown's top pairing of
Gonzalo Barcelo (San Pedro, Argentina/Nuestra Senora del Socorro) and
Neal Devkaran (Fairfax, Va./Paul VI Catholic) made sure the visitors went to singles with a lead, answering Moravian's (2-2) win at No. 3 with an 8-5 victory over Kieran Pisani and Justin Szaro.
Gincauskas emerged from a close first set with Zachary Lebby at third singles with a 7-5 decision and swept the second set, 6-0, to put the Bears up 3-1.
Devkaran beat Szaro 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 and Arizpe, who hopped on to the open court at the conclusion of Gincauskas' match, blanked Pisani 6-0, 6-0 at No. 4 to end it.
Barcelo was engaged in a great battle with Ronca at No. 1, where the two traded 7-5 wins in sets one (Ronca) and two (Barcelo), before unfortunately being able to write a final chapter.
Ethan Moyer (Wernersville, Pa./Conrad Weiser) led Marshall 5-3 in the first set at No. 5, while No. 6
Kurt Abell (Sinking Spring, Pa./Conrad Weiser) didn't get a chance to start his match against Andrew Hozza due to Moravian's limited three-court indoor setup.
Kutztown will look to make it two wins in a row when it travels to Scranton next Saturday at 1 p.m.
Â
