ROCKFORD, Ill. - MSOE men's tennis was only able to play eight contests before COVID-19 shut down the 2020 season, so it is tough to judge where your team stands heading into a new campaign. The difficulty is amplified even more so when you have a combined seven freshman and sophomore student-athletes on the roster. The growing pains showed a little bit this afternoon in their season opener, falling to Wartburg in Rockford.
MATCH SCORE
MSOE RAIDERS – 1
Wartburg – 8
HOW IT HAPPENED
MSOE (0-1, 0-0 NACC) was unable to put anything together against Wartburg (2-1, 0-0 AMC) when they met at a neutral facility on Saturday afternoon, seeing most of the matches won in straight sets. The Red and White were able to push them to the brink a couple of times, however. Connor Splingaire took Nile Petersen into a third set tiebreak but fell 7-0. Josh Fay was a little luckier. Fay competed in another three-set affair as well but was able to put away Luke Smith 5-0 for the lone MSOE tally. The teams of Ryan Emerich and Fay and Alex Nakasato and Splingaire were able to win more than one set in doubles action but it was not enough in the Raiders seven-point loss.
The Raiders were also scheduled to play Illinois Wesleyan this afternoon but that match was cancelled due to the incoming winter storm for travel purposes.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Raiders will look to pick up win number one on the season when they take on Loras this Saturday at home. First serve is slated for 2:00 pm
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