HERSHEY, Pa. – Returning to action for the first time in nearly five months, Kutztown University men's tennis picked up right where it left off after an unbeaten fall. The Golden Bears opened the spring portion of their schedule with a convincing 7-0 win over NCAA Division III Dickinson College Saturday indoors at the Hershey Racquet Club.
 
Kutztown seized momentum early with a sweep of doubles. Emmitt Robinson (Ingersoll, Ontario/Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute) and Linus Vennekold (Laatzen, Germany/) topped Ryan Whiting and Florian Anderson, 6-2, at No. 3, before Dang Nguyen (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam/) and Henrique Rocha (Jaticua, Brazil/Escola SEB Maceio) picked up a 6-3 victory over Lucas Bogle and Eddy Chow in the top flight match.
 
Joaquin Perez (Pachuca, Mexico/Escuela Americana) and Nikita Safonov (Podolsk, Russia/) made it 3-for-3 with a 6-4 win over Drew Allen and Aidan MacIntosh at No. 2 as Kutztown (7-0) carried a 1-0 lead into singles.
 
The Maroon and Gold were nearly as dominant in singles, winning five of six flights in straight sets.
 
Safonov took care of Allen 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 and Rocha turned back Chow 6-0, 6-3 No. 3 to extend KU's lead to 3-0.
 
Nguyen overcame early adversity after dropping the first set to Bogle 6-3, responding with a 6-3 win in the second and claiming the super tiebreaker 11-9.
 
Kutztown only dropped two games in the bottom half of singles with No. 5 Robinson shutting out MacIntosh 6-0, 6-0. No. 4 Perez beat Anderson 6-0, 6-1, and No. 6 Vennekold did the same to Whiting.
 
The Golden Bears will be back at home to take on Fairmont State next Saturday, March 8, at 2 p.m.
  Read Full Article