The Monmouth College men's tennis team closed the regular season with their first Midwest Conference win of the season.The Fighting Scots (2-11, 1-5) rallied to beat Ripon 4-3 at home on Saturday afternoon after falling 6-1 to Lawrence in the morning match.
The Scots swept doubles to earn that point before
Antonio Perez (St. George, Utah),
Chase Sims (Tiskilwa, Illinois) and
Alfonso Mares (Oak Lawn, Illinois) each won their singles match for the 4-3 win. The victory snapped a 25-match conference losing streak that dated back to April 2022.
"We closed out the season showing an incredible amount of growth from August," said head coach
Brian Dahlstrom. "We competed at a level in doubles today that we haven't in a long time in this program and I am very enthusiastic about how the season wrapped up.
Matthew Savage (Washington, Illinois) and Perez started the match with a 6-3 win at No. 1 doubles while
Macaden Sepich (Mackinaw, Illinois) and Caden De Jong (Freeport, Illinois) won 7-5 at No. 2. Sims and Mares made it a clean sweep with a 6-0 win at No. 3.
"That doubles point proved decisive today and the energy the guys brought after a morning loss was huge," said Dahlstrom.
Savage fell 6-4, 6-2 at No. 1 singles while Perez picked up his first win of the year with a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 2. Sepich lost 7-6 (4), 6-2 and De Jong lost a tiebreaker 10-8 after splitting sets 6-3, 1-6. That meant the Scots needed two wins in the last two matches. Sims evened the match with a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 5 and a 6-0, 6-2 win by Mares at No. 6 gave Monmouth the victory.
In the morning match, played at Lakeside Center in Galesburg, Mares won 6-4, 1-6, 10-7 at No. 6 singles. He teamed with Sims to win 7-6 (5) at No. 3 doubles. Sepich and De Jong lost at No. 2 doubles in an 8-6 tiebreaker while Savage and Perez lost 6-3.
"Mares found a level we've been looking for and he was a perfect 4-0 today," said Dahlstrom. "Chase and Antonio also stayed focused and played very complete matches."
The 1-5 singles matches were all straight set losses with Sepich having the closest match at 6-2, 7-5.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: The Scots lost at Lawrence 7-0 and Ripon 6-1 last year…Ripon had won four in a row in the series dating back to 2019 and Lawrence has won eight in a row in the series since 2016…Monmouth's last MWC dual win was a 6-3 home win over Illinois College on April 11, 2022…Sims is 5-2 in singles…Mares had his first singles win of the season in the Lawrence match and then added another…Perez picked up his first singles win in the victory over Ripon…Savage/Perez had their first MWC doubles win as a pair in the top spot…The Scots will play at the Midwest Conference Singles and Doubles Championships in Madison, Wisconsin next weekend.
