Lincoln – The No. 73 Nebraska men’s tennis team captured its third-straight Big Ten Conference win, powering past Penn State (13-12, 3-5 Big Ten), 4-1 at the Dillon Tennis Center on Friday afternoon.
The victory marked Nebraska’s first three-match Big Ten winning streak since also accomplishing the feat in its first season as a conference member in 2011-12. The Huskers also secured their first five-win Big Ten season since joining the conference, and just their third five-win season in program history. The last time Nebraska won five conference matches in a season came in 1989, when the Huskers finished second in the Big Eight with a 5-1 record. The 1989 team featured NCAA runner-up Steven Jung. The 4-1 victory over the Nittany Lions also locked up Nebraska’s first winning season in conference play since 1993, when NU was a member of the Big Eight.
Nebraska’s victory over Penn State helped the Huskers secure a first-round bye into the upcoming Big Ten Men’s Tennis Championship (April 28-May 1). The Big Red (5-3 Big Ten, 9-14 overall) earned the No. 5 seed in the 10-team tournament and will take on No. 4 seed Northwestern on Friday, April 29 at Noon (CT) in Madison, Wis., in the tournament quarterfinals.
Action started with doubles play as the No. 1 team of Victor Moreno Lozano and Nic Wiedenhorn knocked off Penn State’s Malik Bhatnagar and Charl Morgan, 6-3. It was the duo’s third win in their last four completed matches. In the No. 2 spot, Dario Huber and Shunya Maruyama fell just short to the Nittany Lions’ duo of Bora Sengul and Miko Eala, 6-4, to even the doubles point at one.
William Gleason and Calvin Mueller earned the doubles point for Nebraska in the No. 3 spot as they were victorious over Loren Byers and Sam Bossem, 6-3, giving the Huskers a 1-0 lead. The team is now 3-1 in conference play since their first match together on April 8 against Illinois.
In singles play, Maruyama rolled to a win over Sengul in consecutive sets, 6-0, 6-1, to give the Huskers their second match point. It was his second-straight singles victory after winning last Saturday against Purdue. Moreno then dropped his match against Bossem in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Roni Hietaranta rallied back from down 4-1 in the second set, as he scored the next five points and took the match in the No. 4 spot, 6-3,…
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