February
8, 2010
Tiger tennis team opens season at University of Arkansas
It may not have translated into wins, but the Cowley College men’s
tennis team had some impressive performances in its season-opening match
at the University of Arkansas on Sunday.
Arkansas, which is ranked No. 55 in the NCAA Division I tennis rankings,
had already faced No. 8-ranked Texas and No. 26-ranked Washington, while
the Tigers were playing their first match of the spring.
Although Cowley would lose 7-0, the outcome was not nearly as lopsided
as one might think. In fact, Cowley’s Lloyd Bruce Burgess won the
first set of his No. 1 singles match against Mike Ward before losing
6-3, 3-6, 6-10.
Also, Tiger freshman Alex Dickson pushed Arkansas’s Nicholas Spinazze
to a first set tie-breaker before losing. While, Dickson and Roger White
battled hard in No. 3 doubles before falling by a score of 8-6.
Cowley head coach Josh Cobble was pleased with the team’s level
of play.
“Everyone competed hard, we dealt with some first match jitters with
playing at an amazing facility and facing probably the toughest opponent we
will see all year,” Cobble said. “Being able to play this caliber
of team and stand toe to toe with them and compete as hard as we did will help
us.”
Along with Dickson and White’s performance at No. 3 doubles, the
Tigers’ No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams also performed well in a
pair of 8-4 defeats.
“We had very good doubles matches, we just were unable to capitalize
on some of the opportunities we had,” Cobble said.
Cowley will return to action on Friday, Feb. 19 when they play at Drury
University in Springfield, MO. at noon.
“They are one of the top (NCAA) Division II schools every year, so we
will have to play well,” Cobble said. “We will try to build off
this experience at Arkansas and work on capitalizing on some of the opportunities
we missed out on.”
Results:
DOUBLES
- No. 1 — Lloyd Bruce Burgess/Joan Valls (CC) lost to Chris
Nott/Dmitry Lebedev (UA) 4-8.
- No. 2 — Renato Mendes/Felipe Pimenta (CC) lost to Matt Hogan/Matt
Walters (UA) 4-8.
- No. 3 — Roger White/Alex Dickson (CC) lost to Nikolas Zogaj/Mike
Ward (UA) 6-8.
SINGLES
- No. 1 — Bruce-Burgess (CC) lost to Ward (UA) 6-3, 3-6, 6-10.
- No. 2 — Valls (CC) lost to Gregoire Lehman (UA) 2-6, 2-6.
- No. 3 — Mendes (CC) lost to Zogaj (UA) 0-6, 3-6.
- No. 4 — White (CC) lost to Bradwin Williams (UA) 3-6, 0-6.
- No. 5 — Pimenta (CC) lost to Walters (UA) 1-6, 2-6.
- No. 6 — Dickson (CC) lost to Nicholas Spinazze (UA) 6-7 (0),
3-6.
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