Done In By Doubles

SARTELL, Minn. (2/14/16)—A week after earning their first conference win since 2013, Concordia lost all six doubles bouts and dropped a pair of road MIAC matches.

The Cobbers fell 7-2 at Bethel in Saturday and then lost 8-1 on Sunday at St. John's.

The two losses drop Concordia's season record to 1-2 overall and 1-2 in conference play. Bethel remains unbeaten on the year at 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the MIAC while the Johnnies improve to 1-2 overall and 1-1 in league play.

The match against Bethel on Saturday swung at the end of the doubles bouts. All three matches were extremely close and all three were won with breaks at the end. Both the Cobbers' No.2 and No.3 doubles teams of Zach Zitur and Matthew Engum and Austin Storm and Jesse Schneeberger lost by scores of 8-5. The No.1 doubles match was also close with Isaac Toivonen and David Schneck falling 8-4.

The middle of the singles lineup provided the wins on the day for CC. Zitur rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 straight set win at No.3 singles while Schneeberger continued his torrid single play by claiming a 6-3, 5-7, 10-4 super-set tiebreak win in the No.4 spot. For both Zitur and Schneeberger it was their second straight singles win to start the season.

Perhaps the closest match of the night came at No.1 singles where Toivonen dropped a heart breaker in the super-set tie-breaker. He rallied in the second to gain a 6-2 win after starting slowly and falling 6-2 in the opener. The match went all the way until the final two points where the Royal player closed out with a 10-8 victory.

Sunday's match started the same for the Cobbers as they lost all three doubles bouts. Toivonen and Schneck lost 10-8 in the tie-breaker after the teams were tied at 8-8.

Toivonen shook off the tough loss in doubles play and came away with the lone victory for the CC singles players. For the second straight match Toivonen lost 6-2 in the first and then rallied to win 6-2 in the second. Unlike Saturday, Toivonen closed out the match with a 10-7 win in the super-set tie-breaker. The win over Jack Hansen from SJU avenges a loss from last year where Hansen nipped Toivonen 11-9 in the super-set tiebreaker.  

The closest singles bout among the other five matches came at No.5 singles where Engum lost 7-6 (7-2) and 6-4.        

SINGLES RACE
Concordia now has three of its singles players all tied for the team lead in singles wins. Toivonen, Zitur and Schneeberger  all have identical 2-1 singles marks on the year.

SETTING THE TONE
Concordia went 0-6 in doubles play over the weekend. That is in sharp contrast to their two wins in the season opener against Hamline.  

WHAT'S NEXT
Concordia will have its first non-conference match of the season when they play at St. Cloud State on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 12 p.m. The Huskies are 1-1 on the season and are coming off a win over MIAC St. Thomas.