SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. -- Kutztown University men's tennis picked up its first PSAC victory of the season with a 7-0 sweep at Shepherd Sunday afternoon.
The Golden Bears did not drop a set in singles and won 2-of-3 doubles flights to improve to 11-2 overall and 1-1 in the PSAC. The 11 victories are Kutztown's most since going 14-5 in 2014-15. Shepherd fell to 1-8 (0-4 PSAC) with the defeat.
Emmitt Robinson (Ingersoll, Ontario/Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute) and
Linus Vennekold (Laatzen, Germany/) made quick work of Jack Schottler and Jaden Sheely at third doubles, sweeping the match 6-0, to give the visiting Bears an early boost. Shepherd evened doubles with a 6-3 win from its No. 2 pair but KU grabbed the crucial point when its top tandem of
Dang Nguyen (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam/) and
Henrique Rocha (Jaticua, Brazil/Escola SEB Maceio) held off Arka Genguly and Fabian Telschow, 7-5.
Kutztown continued to control play in singles.
Nikita Safonov (Podolsk, Russia/) blanked Telschow 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 and Robinson turned back Jeremy Williams 7-5, 6-2 at No. 3.
Nguyen, who won a thrilling tiebreaker in his first set at No. 1 against Genguly 7-6 (8), secured the match victory for the Golden Bears when Genguly retired while trailing 2-1 in the second.
From there, Vennekold beat Schottler 6-2, 6-0 at No. 4,
Luis Lopes (Piracicaba, Brazil/Colegio Saber) defeated Curry Taylor 6-1, 6-1 at No. 5 and
Lucas Cherniak (Buenos Aires, Argentina/Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini) earned a 6-0, 6-0 clean sheet over Sheely at No. 6.
Due to poor weather recently, Sunday's match marked the first of three matches for Kutztown in as many days. The Maroon and Gold host Millersville in a big PSAC match Monday at 2 p.m., before traveling to Bloomsburg for another conference showdown on Tuesday at 3 p.m. The week concludes with a non-conference match at Muhlenberg on Friday.
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