BUFFALO, N.Y. – Sixth-seeded Chicago State men's tennis concluded its season Thursday afternoon after falling to third-seeded Northern Illinois, 4-1, in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference Championship at the Ellicott Tennis Facility on the campus of the University of Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y.
The match opened with NIU taking an early 1-0 lead following the doubles matches which started with a default win at No. 3 doubles by Javier Benabe and Ross VanderPloeg. The Huskies' No. 2 double tandem of Jurica Grubisic and Shaun Stewart posted an 8-3 win over senior Jonathan Sutjiadi (Jakarta, Indonesia/Jakarta, Indonesia) (Jakarta, Indonesia) and sophomore Aumir Ahmad (Skokie, IL/Niles West HS) (Skokie, Ill.).
NIU claimed another default win to begin the singles matches with Alfonso Monroy earning the duke at No. 6 singles to go up 2-0.
Sutjiadi pulled the Cougars to within 2-1 after defeating Grubisic in No. 1 singles by retirement due to injury after leading by a 4-0 margin in the first set.
VanderPloeg captured his No. 5 singles match with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over senior Larry Harris (Chicago, Ill.), who was making his collegiate tennis debut for CSU. Bernabe clinched the match for the Huskies after defeating Ahmad in their No. 3 single battle by identical 6-0 scores.
The Cougars closed the season with a 4-13 mark, while the Huskies improved to 9-9 on the year.
~CSU~
