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Junior Carter Steffes clinched the Cobbers' 5-4 win at St. Mary's with his 4-6, 6-4, 10-5 win at No.5 singles.
Junior Carter Steffes clinched the Cobbers' 5-4 win at St. Mary's with his 4-6, 6-4, 10-5 win at No.5 singles.

Steffes Clinches Dramatic Super-Set Win

WINONA, Minn. (3/24/19)--- Junior Carter Steffes capped a dramatic group of singles for the Concordia and helped the Cobbers edge St. Mary's 5-4 in Winona.

Steffes earned one of two super-set tie-breaker wins for Concordia as the Cobbers earned their first conference win of the season. CC is now 1-4 in league play and 5-8 in all matches. The Cardinals continue to look for their first MIAC victory of the year and are now 0-7 in the conference. SMU falls to 4-9 overall.

Steffes and sophomore Jake Peters recorded two huge singles wins for Concordia – and both came in the super-set tie-breaker. Steffes clinched the match for the Cobbers from his No.5 singles spot. He dropped a 4-6 decision in the first set but then came back to win 6-4 in the second set before closing out his opponent 10-5 in the tie-breaker.

The victory was Steffes' first MIAC singles win of the year and also his first singles match which went to the super-set tie-breaker.  Steffes ended a 6-match losing streak and is now 4-8 in singles bouts this year.

Peters set up Steffes' match-clinching win with his tie-breaker victory at No.6 singles. Like Steffes, Peters dropped the first set but then came back to win the second set by an identical score. Both of the first two sets finished with a 6-3 mark. Peters then needed to go to extra games in the tie-breaker before coming away with an 11-9 victory.

Also like Steffes, the victory was his first conference singles win of the season. Peters snapped a 5-match losing skid with the win and he is now 4-7 in all singles matches this season. He is now 3-1 in super-set tie-breaker matches this year.       

Junior Jared Saue cruised to a straight-set win for the other Concordia singles point. Saue rolled to a 6-0, 6-3 win to grab his team-leading eighth singles victory of the year. The victory is also his 22nd career singles win in maroon and gold.

Concordia was able to take a 2-1 lead heading into singles play courtesy of wins by the Top 2 doubles spots. Saue teamed with fellow junior Erik Porter to record an 8-4 win at No.1 singles and then Ben Swanson and Tanner Lundberg won 8-4 at No.2 doubles.

The race for the most wins among CC doubles teams continues to stay close. Saue and Porter are now 8-4 on the year and are one victory shy of Swanson and Lundberg who move to 9-4.

UP NEXT: Concordia will step away from conference play and play a pair of matches at the University of North Dakota on Friday, Mar. 29. The Cobbers will face Augustana (S.D) at 1 p.m. and then square off against host UND at 4:30 p.m. Both matches will be played at the Choice Health and Fitness Center in Grand Forks.

Concordia-M'head 5, Saint Mary's University 4
3/24/2019 at Winona, Minn. (Winona Tennis Center)

Singles competition
1. Bobby Tiedeman (SMU) def. Erik Porter (CC) 6-4, 6-3
2. Jared Saue (CC) def. Alec Rudh (SMU) 6-0, 6-3
3. Robbie Sobczak (SMU) def. Ben Swanson (CC) 6-3, 6-4
4. Trevor Smiley (SMU) def. Tanner Lundberg (CC) 0-6, 6-1, 10-8
5. Carter Steffes (CC) def. Brandon Kurilla (SMU) 4-6, 6-4, 10-5
6. Jake Peters (CC) def. Gabe Graves (SMU) 3-6, 6-3, 11-9

Doubles competition
1. Erik Porter/Jared Saue (CC) def. Bobby Tiedeman/Trevor Smiley (SMU) 8-4
2. Ben Swanson/Tanner Lundberg (CC) def. Alec Rudh/Brandon Kurilla (SMU) 8-4
3. Robbie Sobczak/Gabe Graves (SMU) def. Carter Steffes/Grant Storm (CC) 8-1