Over the weekend, the Blugold men’s tennis team picked up three wins at McPhee Center, bringing their winning streak to an impressive 11 straight games won this season and 6-0 at home.

Despite the team being split up over three separate matches, the Blugolds defeated Ripon College on Friday with a 9-0 result. They followed that up on Saturday with another 9-0 victory over Simpson College (Iowa), making that their fourth 9-0 win this season. They continued their domination on Saturday with a win over Concordia University 8-1.
Overall, the success during the weekend has pushed the Blugolds to a No. 14 regional ranking with an 11-1 season record.

“We got a lot of experience (this weekend) for the younger players and we got some tougher matches for more of our experienced players,” coach Tom Gillman said.

The Blugolds played three teams this weekend, and Gillman said that they are mentally tired and not used to this many matches. But, he said, it was an eye-opening experience for them, and they all played with extra effort.

“We’re all practicing on something. We are all trying to get better,” sophomore David Stingley said. “We want to work on something while we’re here.”

In the games against Ripon, the Blugolds managed three 6-0 victories. Freshmen Bryan Yanagita, Joe Meier and Brayden Parman all pulled off 6-0 wins in their singles matches. The rest of the team that played Ripon on Friday won all their singles matches by not giving up more than three sets.

The doubles matches against Ripon faired the same as the team won all of their matches. The duo of Parman and Meier won their match with a solid 8-0 final score.

On Saturday’s morning matches against Simpson College, the Blugolds’ single matches continued to put up great results. Yanagita again won both of his singles matches with a 6-0 shutout. Stingley, in his second singles match against Simpson, ended with a 6-0 win for the Blugolds.

Though no shutouts were present in the doubles matches for the Blugolds, each duo put up a victory in the end.

“In the morning it’s just getting your feet moving, making sure you’re woken up and ready to go,” said senior Chris Thornton about playing Simpson in the morning and then playing Concordia in the afternoon, “then in the afternoon keeping up that intensity.”

In the afternoon matches against Concordia University, the Blugolds marched on and continued their winning streak with only one match lost.

Yanagita finished off an impressive weekend with another 6-0 in his second singles match against Concordia. Meier dominated in his match with a 6-0 win as well.

Parman lost the only match of the day 4-6, 6-4, and 10-7 against Concordia’s freshman Russell Johnson.

In doubles, the Blugolds swept all of their games against Concordia.

“We’ll get to play as a team again, instead of split ourselves in half,” Gillman said about next weekend’s matches. “So I think they’ll like getting to know each other again.”

Next week the Blugolds look to continue this season’s winning streak on the road against the University of Dubuque (Iowa) 6 p.m. Friday in Waterloo.