Tennis sees strong opening weekend

The Xavier men and Women’s tennis teams opened their spring season this past week with mixed results. The men’s team dropped their first match to No. 4 Ohio State University last Wednesday but responded with victories over IUPUI and Cleveland State University last weekend. The women’s team fell to the University of Louisville on Sunday after opening with win at home versus University of UDM Mercy After the first week of play, the men’s team is 2-1 while the women’s team is 1-1. Following their first loss of the season, the men’s team returned home to beat Cleveland State with a match score of 5-2. Three Musketeers won in straight sets, including juniors Jimmy Roebker and Mesa Mei and freshman Zach Mueck. Senior Brandon MacDonald was the last Musketeer to bring home a victory in the sin- gles matches. The Musketeers swept their next opponent, IUPUI, 7-0 in Indianapolis two days later. Both Mei and Mueck won their No. 2 and No. 3 matches in straight sets, respectively. Freshman Adam Krull picked up his first victory of the spring season in straight sets as well. The Musketeers also swept the doubles matches, leading to an easy victory for Xavier.   “For the men, it was an out- standing week. I couldn’t be hap– pier with their performances this past week,” head coach Eric Toth said.  The women’s team opened spring play last Friday with a 5-2 decision over UDM at home. Despite being swept in the dou– bles matches, Xavier responded in the singles matches by winning five of six to secure the victory. Each of the Musketeer wins came via straight sets. Seniors Katie Pleiman and Kally Alkire, fresh- man Alex Brinker, sophomore Daniella Patton and junior Andrea Wolf were victorious in their re- spective singles matches. Both Brinker and Alkire won their first- set tiebreakers en route to defeats in the No. 2 and No. 4 matches, respectively. The women hit the road for their second match of the season Sunday, falling to the Cardinals 7-0 for their first loss this spring. The Musketeers were swept in both the singles and doubles matches, though both Pleiman and Wolf took their singles match to the third set before losing. Pleiman won the first set in her match against the 84th ranked player in the nation. “Despite a shaky start at UDM, we had a good performance for the women,” Toth said. “We are already stronger [on the women’s team] than we were last year, so you have to like the direction this program is heading.”  The men’s team hosts UDM this Saturday at the Eastern Hills Indoor Tennis Club. The women’s team travels to Richmond, Ky. to face off against Eastern Kentucky University.