Wildcats edge Eutectics at Tower Grove Park

It was a busy weekend for the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy's tennis teams. The women were part of a tri-match on Saturday and the men played host to the Baker Wildcats on Sunday. The visitors from Kansas downed the Eutectics 4-3 to drop UHSP to 1-8 on the season.

UHSP got good production from their #2, 3 and 6 singles on Sunday as that trio accounted for the Eutectics' wins. UHSP's Alvaro Montijano has been incredibly solid all season. This day however, Montijano was bested by Alejandro Hernandez 6-0, 6-3, a rare lopsided loss for the Eutectics' top singles player. Caden Hillman came on strong out of the second singles spot and trumped Juan Avila, 6-2, 6-0. Gavin Hillman took care of business off the three-line edging Fabian Martinez 6-3, 6-4 in a solid match. James Bamberger and Davis Steadman were locked up in a tight battle in the fourth singles position. Bamberger took the opening set in a tiebreak, 7-6 (7-5) while Steadman stormed back in the second set to a 6-1 win. Tied 1-1, Steadman took the match tiebreaker by a 10-5 count. In #5 singles, Kyler Kosanke took down UHSP's Othniel Marcellus, 6-1, 6-0 but Alec Johnson won the #6 match against Baker's Ahn Nguyen, 6-3, 7-5. The Wildcats and Eutectics split the six singles matches 3-3.

In doubles action, Hernandez and Avila bested Montijano and Bamberger, 6-2 to win the top doubles match. Martinez and Steadman matched up with Hillman and Brown and given how tight each of their respective singles matches were, it is no surprise the doubles match was tight as well, with Baker's duo prevailing 7-5. The Wildcats made it a clean sweep of the doubles contests as Kosanke and Nguyen blanked Marcellus and Johnson, 6-0.

The Eutectics men's team is on the road for their next four matches, the first of which comes Sunday at Kaskaskia. Then it is a Thursday-Saturday swing the following week through Illinois and Arkansas all prior to their next home contest on Tue., April 11 against Missouri Baptist.