MOUNT VERNON, Iowa -- The Northwestern College men's tennis (5-1, 0-0 GPAC) team traveled to Mount Vernon, Iowa on February 5 and came away with two wins on the day.
In the first match of the day, the men's tennis team took down Cornell College, 7-2. Head coach
Monte Tilgner had this to say about their performance, "Number one doubles came out of the gate very strong and played a very solid match to give us an early point on the board. In singles, David played a very nice match to give us an early singles lead. Juan played some outstanding singles dominating his match for another point. Brian lost the first set on a tiebreaker, then easily won the second and played a great super tiebreaker for the win. Our 4-6 players also played very solid and we took all 6 singles matches. It was a great team win."
Brian VanDen Berg (Jr., Mason City, Iowa/North Iowa Christian) and
David Bomgaars (Fr., Aurora, Colo./Valor Christian) dominated their opponents 8-2 in the first double spot.
Collin Harmelink (Fr., Sioux Falls, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) and
Juan Mackrey (Sr., Balcare, Argentina/Colegio Santa Rosa De Lima) lost a tough battle in tie breaker in the two spot.
Kevin Woodrow (Fr., Sheridan, Wyo./Sheridan) and
Gavin Mulder (Fr., Sioux Falls, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) were defeated 1-8 in the third spot.
The Raiders swept all six singles matches against Cornell. In the number one spot VanDen Berg defeated Strumlauf 6-7, 6-2, 1-0. The other 5 matches would all be won in 2 sets.
Following the win against Cornell, the Raiders would go on to defeat Loras College with the same score, 7-2. Tilgner said this about the second match, "The number 1 and 2 doubles teams set the stage for the match. Both played extremely high quality tennis and won 8-3. In singles, our top three players played at an extremely high level, easily winning their matches against high quality opponents. At 4 singles,
Collin Harmelink battled really well, coming back to win a super tiebreaker.
Jack Roisum also finished the day with a good win at 5 singles. Overall, I don't know if I could be more happy with the start to our spring season."
VanDen Berg and Bomgaars put together another dominating performance, winning the number one spot 8-3. Harmelink and Mackrey turned it around and took their match 8-3. The Roisum brothers were defeated 5-8 in the third spot.
In the six singles matches that were played, Northwestern won 5 of them. Vandenberg, Bomgaars, Mackrey and
Jack Roisum won their matches in 2 sets. Mackrey won his match in a thrilling tiebreaker set to win 4-6, 7-5, 10-8.
With the two wins, the Raiders advance their record to 5-1 on the season. "It was a great day for the Raiders! By far the best tennis we've played since I've taken over the program," added Tilger.
The Red Raiders will return to action February 17 for their first GPAC contest, where they will take on the Lancers of Mount Marty in Yankton, S.D.
