Men’s tennis plays in Viking Invitational

By Julian Nunnery

DeKalb — The men’s tennis team concluded play in the Cleveland State Viking Invitational Sunday in Cleveland. The Huskies were lead by seniors Georg Lundkvist and Eric Marbach, who both reached the singles semifinals.

Lundkvist and Marbach both picked up three singles wins before being eliminated in the semifinal round. Lundkvist won his first match (6-4, 6-2) against Mirko Radosevic of Cleveland State and his second in three sets against Toledo’s Vince Anzalone (7-6, 2-6, 10-7).

He won another three set match against Ben Slade of Cleveland State (6-2, 3-6, 10-7) before falling to the tournament champion Niko Mostardi of Cleveland State (6-2, 7-6, (3)).

Marbach picked up his first win (6-0, 6-2) over Case Western Reserve Universities’s Rob Stroup and his second against Valentine Bouchet of Binghamton University (6-2, 7-5). He then split a pair of three set matches defeating Cleveland State’s Matthew Berry (6-4, 4-6, 11-9) before losing (6-4, 3-6, 10-8) to Daynylo Veremeichuk of Youngstown State in the final four.

Senior Louis-Philippe Hamel went 2-1 in his singles matches at Cleveland State. He won his first match (6-1, 6-0) against Youngstown State’s Matt Kritzinger and his second against Taylan Ozdemir of Niagara University (6-3, 6-0). Hamel couldn’t keep the momentum going in the quarterfinals, however, falling (6-2, 6-0) to Veremeichuk.

Senior Tom Hjertonsson, freshman Victor Spolidorio and redshirt freshman Kristopher Ortega all split their pairs of singles matches in the second and third rounds. Hjertonsson defeated Sid Rajupet of Case Western (6-4, 6-1) before losing (7-5, 7-2) to Cleveland State’s Luke Phillips.

Spolidorio picked up a win over Henry Squire of Case Western (6-0, 6-3) but fell (6-2, 6-1) to Mostardi. Ortega took down Case Western’s Matt Chen (6-1, 6-2) but couldn’t hold on in the next round against Veremeichuk, losing (6-1, 6-4).

In the first round of doubles play, Spolidorio teamed up with Stroup to take down Junior Eric Schuette and Ortega (6-4).

After losing (6-4) to Cleveland State in the second round of doubles, Marbach and Lundkvist bounced back to defeat Youngstown State (6-3) in the doubles back draw round of 32 and a pair from Cleveland State and Toledo (6-0) in the doubles draw round of 16.

The Huskies will wrap up the fall portion of their schedule next weekend at the Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships. The three-day event will begin on Friday, Nov. 10 and continue through Sunday, Nov. 12 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.