Southern Illinois University
Creighton
Men's Tennis upsets Creighton, 4-3
04/23/2010 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
April 23, 2010
By Michael Benson
www.SIUSalukis.com
WICHITA, Kan. - The Saluki men's tennis team provided plenty of excitement Friday night in Wichita, Kan., as they pulled off an upset victory over the fourth-seeded Creighton Bluejays, 4-3.
The win puts the Salukis into tomorrow's semifinals, where they will face the Illinois State Redbirds. The `Birds swept the Dawgs, 7-0, on April 3 in Carbondale.
The victory also snaps Southern Illinois' four match losing streak.
"It was a very hard fought match that lasted five hours," said Saluki head coach Dann Nelson. "Our seniors stepped up really big, with both Mpilo and Anton coming back to win their matches. Falk played really well in beating an all-conference player. I'm just really proud of how we played."
Much like the two squads' previous meeting, in which Creighton emerged with a 4-3 win, the entire match was tight the entire way through.
Leading the effort for Southern were upperclassmen Anton Leonenko, Mpilo Migogo, and Falk De Beenhouwer, and , as all three notched singles wins.
Leonenko played in what turned out to be the clinching match against Creighton's James McAvoy. With both teams tied at three, the Calgary, Canada, native tied the match for Southern with dominating second set. Then after falling behind 5-2 early in the third set, Leonenko battled back with five straight games to win 1-6, 6-0, 7-5.
Meanwhile, Migogo faced a similar challenge after dropping the first set to Billy Paluch. However, the senior native battled back to capture the second set and eventually win the match in the final set 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Fittingly, De Beenhouwer's match was no different, as he topped J.T. Christian 7-5, 6-4.
The Salukis got on the board early, as they used a late push in third doubles to take the doubles point. After Migogo and De Beenhouwer defeated the Bluejays' Gabe Nagy and Kyle Obermeier, 8-5, Leonenko and Orhan Spahic clinched the point for Southern with a late 9-7 win over James McAvoy and Sean Mathison.
The Dawgs will return to the courts tomorrow at 2 p.m. for their semifinal match.
Players Mentioned
