HILTON HEAD, S.C. - Webster University began play in the annual Spring TennisFest here at the Chaplin Park Tennis Center on Sunday by posting a 6-3 shutout win over Nazareth College.
With the win, Webster improves to 4-2 on the season, while Nazareth fell to 2-4 on the year.
"What a great way for us to start the spring break tournament. I thought we came put fired up and played aggressive doubles and then continued that strong play into singles," Webster head coach
John Black said following the match.
Webster opened Sunday's match by winning both the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches by scores of 8-1 and 8-2 respectively, but Nazareth prevented the doubles sweep by the Gorloks as their No. 3 team of Dominic Vito and Collin Bennett took down Webster's No. 3 team of sophomore
Harsh Jaswal (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West) and sophomore
Sean Raglin (Barnhart, Mo./Windsor), 8-2.
Meanwhile, in singles action, the Gorloks won the first four singles matches, but Nazareth would win the matches at No. 5 and No. 6 to earn two of its three points in the match.
Perhaps the match of the day came at the No. 2 singles spot as junior
Austin Nation (Oklahoma City, Okla./Purcell) opened the first set with a 6-2 win over Tommy Daviau, before Daviau came back to win 7-5 win the second set to force a third set tiebreaker. The tiebreaker, though, belonged to Nation as he won 10-2 to improve to 3-2 on the year in singles.
Senior
Riley Muren (O'Fallon, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) improved to 6-0 in dual matches this season at the No. 1 spot in the lineup as he defeated Nazareth's No. 1 player, Nathan Allen, in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.
Freshman
Justin Weaver (Fenton, Mo./Rockwood Summit) picked up a win at No. 3 singles over Vito as Weaver won 6-4, 6-2 to move to 2-4 on the season in singles action.
Webster's other singles win came at the No. 4 spot as sophomore
Tanner Haugen (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City) earned a hard fought 6-1, 6-3 win over Tyler Luong. Haugen is now 4-2 on the year in singles action.
Nazareth would win its two points at No. 5 and No. 6 as William Britton defeated Jaswal at No. 5 (64, 6-4)
Meanwhile, at the No. 6 singles spot, sophomore
Justin Kohler (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo), who was playing his first match of the season, hung with Ryan Lalik as Lalik won 6-3, 7-6 (10-5).
Webster will return to action in the Spring TennisFest on Monday, March 9 as they face FDU-Florham in a 9 a.m. ET match at the Evian Tennis Center.
