Box Score The Chicago State men's tennis team punched their ticket to the Western Athletic Conference tournament by virtue of a 6-1 victory over Seattle U Saturday morning at the Eager Tennis Pavilion in Abilene, Texas. The Cougars and Redhawks squared off with the winner of the match set to advance to the conference tournament with the top six teams advancing to Beaumont, Texas April 22-24. Chicago State clinched the sixth seed and will face the No. 3 seed April 22.
Chicago State captured the doubles point in dramatic fashion, jumping out to a 1-0 lead on the strength of a 6-2 victory at No. 2 by
Jakub Zamorski and
Jesus Perez Plaza. Moments later, Seattle U captured a win at No. 1 leaving the duo of
Max Sandoval and
Jakov Suler battling for the team point at No. 3. Down 5-2, Sandoval and Suler rallied to knot the match 5-5 before breaking the Redhawks serve to go up 6-5. Suler served for the 7-5 win and the team doubles points.
"I think we captured a lot of their energy when Max (Sandoval) and Jakov (Suler) came back from 5-2 down to win the match 7-5 and win the doubles point. From there, we did well to keep the momentum by winning the first set on four of the six singles matches."
In singles, the Cougars won at No. 6 and No. 5 to jump out to a 3-0 lead, only needing one more singles win to clinch the match. Following the lone Seattle U win at No. 2, Chicago State swept the remaining matches for the 6-1 team victory and the opportunity to extend the season into the conference tournament.
"I'm really proud of the guys," head coach
Jack Barton said. "We knew the urgency of winning this match but we encouraged them to not think about what's on the line, but to just go out and play with energy and excitement.
"I'm really proud of Javi (
Javier Sanchez Pradillo) because he had a rough start to the day in doubles and was down a set and losing 3-0 in the second set and found a way to win, even after the match was clinched.
"We are excited about qualifying for the conference championships. We can throw the records out the window and focus on one match at a time."
Chicago State University vs Lamar
4/9/2022 at Abilene, Texas
(Eager Tennis Pavilion)
Chicago State University 6, Seattle U 1
Singles competition
1.
Pedro Alvarez (CSU) def. Julian Worn (SU) 6-4, 6-3
2. Filip Stipic (SU) def.
Jakov Suler (CSU) 6-3, 6-4
3.
Jesus Perez Plaza (CSU) def. Veselin Kiselkov (SU) 6-3, 5-7, 10-7
4. J Sanchez Pradillo (CSU) def. Michael Frank (SU) 5-7, 6-3, 10-8
5.
Hugo Hidalgo Vega (CSU) def. Mats Krause (SU) 6-2, 6-0
6.
Jakub Zamorski (CSU) def. Lars Schmassmann (SU) 6-1, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Julian Worn/Veselin Kiselkov (SU) def. J Sanchez Pradillo/
Pedro Alvarez (CSU) 6-1
2.
Jakub Zamorski/
Jesus Perez Plaza (CSU) def. Mats Krause/Michael Frank (SU) 6-2
3.
Max Sandoval/
Jakov Suler (CSU) def. Oliver Hall/Filip Stipic (SU) 7-5
Match Notes:
Seattle U 4-20, 0-6
Chicago State University 9-14, 1-5
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (6,5,2,1,3,4)
About Chicago State
Chicago State University Athletics is comprised of 15 intercollegiate teams involving over 150 student-athletes that compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and volleyball. CSU held memberships in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and NCAA Division II before transitioning to NCAA Division I in 1994. Melvin Bland was the first CSU student-athlete to gain NAIA All-American status in 1974 as a wrestler. Fred Evans became the first black swimmer ever to win a national championship in 1975. In 1991, the Chicago State women's tennis team became the first all-black college team to amass an unbeaten season at the NCAA level. CSU's women's basketball team earned a spot in the 2011 Women's Basketball Invitational and CSU's men's basketball team won the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament title, also making an appearance in the CollegeInside.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). The Men's Outdoor Track & Field 4x100-Meter Relay team were 2019 Honorable Mention All-Americans and WAC Champions. Their feat marked the first time the Chicago State's men's track & field program was represented at the national meet. Chicago State volleyball recorded a historic season in 2021, with Yanlis Feliz becoming CSU's first volleyball All-American and head coach
Tony Trifonov earning selection as WAC Coach of the Year. During that same season, three different CSU teams earned victories over Big Ten opponents with men's soccer beating Northwestern, women's basketball upending Wisconsin and volleyball, which established a school record 17 wins and hosted a post-season volleyball tournament for the first time in program history, swept Indiana in Bloomington.
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