Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Creighton
Men's Tennis beats Creighton, 6-1
04/16/2011 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
April 16, 2011
By Tyler Wooten
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Saluki men's tennis team notched a win in its first of two Missouri Valley Conference matches this weekend, besting Creighton today, 6-1, at Sports Blast.
The Salukis (9-5, 1-1) improved to 6-1 at home as they took five of six singles matches from the Blue Jays (7-9, 0-5) and two doubles wins for the point. Leading the way again for SIU were freshmen Jorge Cavero and Adam Fabik, who both improved to 12-2 in singles on the dual-match season. At No. 2, Cavero defeated CU's J.T. Christian 6-3, 6-3. And at No. 1, Fabik edged out a three-set victory against Billy Paluch 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
Cavero is now on a five-match winning streak and is 4-0 since his move to No. 2 singles on April 6 against Eastern Illinois. As a whole, in singles the Salukis are 30 matches over .500 at 57-27, which yields a .679 singles winning percentage.
Posting singles wins elsewhere for SIU were sophomores Brandon Florez at No. 3 (6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2) and Orhan Spahic at No. 5 (7-5, 7-6 (1)), who are each tied for the second-best record on the team at 9-4. Rounding out singles wins for the Salukis was freshman Carlos Do Val at No. 5 (6-4, 6-3).
The tandems of Fabik/Florez (8-6) and Cavero/Do Val (8-6) won the two doubles matches for the Salukis en route to the doubles point. On the dual match season the Salukis are 24-12 with a .667 winning percentage.
"I thought we took care of business," said head coach Dann Nelson. "We won matches where we needed to win. I was especially happy with Jorge (Cavero) by winning his match in straight sets against an All-Conference player from last year."
"We're going to have to play a lot better tomorrow because the competition is a lot better with No. 63 in the nation coming to town, so we need to be ready." The Salukis host Drake tomorrow with first serve set for 10 a.m. at University Courts.
Players Mentioned
