Saint Louis Takes 7-0 Victory Over Chicago State

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Homewood, Ill. - Chicago State men's tennis suffered a 7-0 loss to the Saint Louis Billikens at the Homewood-Flossmoor Racquet and Fitness Club on Friday afternoon (March 21).

Juniors Mario Noboa (Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Ecuador/) and Sergiu Muresan (Roman, Romania/) defeated Nishaad Balachandran and Yehia El Sallaly 8-2 in doubles play. Patrick Kella and Joe Flanagan took down junior Luis Ulloa (Guayaquil, Ecuador/) and freshman Uros Pajic (Smederevo, Seribia/Maple Valley) 8-2. Saint Louis took the doubles point after Vuk Poledica and Paarth Dodhiawala beat juniors Rashley Yeremia (Jakarta, Indonesia/) and Julian Chavez (Bogota, Colombia/) 8-7 in a tiebreaker. 

The Billikens won all of the singles matches. Muresan took the second set, but fell 6-0, 0-6, 7-5 to Kella. Ulloa also won a set, but lost 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 to Balachandran. Chavez won the first set, but was beaten 1-6, 6-1, 6-4. Pajic lost 6-3, 6-3 to Flanagan while Noboa also went down by the same score to El Sallaly. Dodhiawala was a 7-6, 6-2 winner over Yeremia. 

Despite the loss, head coach Jack Barton saw some positives from the match. 

"The effort they (CSU) put forth was not an indication of the 7-0 score," said Barton. "We had our chances, but St. Louis was just a little more mentally tough than we were."

The Cougars fall to 3-15 while Saint Louis improves to 7-5 on the year. Chicago State heads to Nebraska for a brief two-match road trip. They take on Omaha next Friday (March 28) with the match scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m.