Southern Illinois University
Mercer
Salukis defeat Mercer 6-1
01/17/2016 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
Tony McDaniel
SIUSalukis.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-- SIU improved to 2-1 with 6-1 win over Mercer, a team that split matches against No. 64 Clemson yesterday. The Salukis were spurred by a strong showing in singles play with wins in their No.1 through No. 5 singles matches.
"Mercer were on a high after beating Clemson yesterday so we had to be ready as a team and stood up to the task," Rigby said. "Everyone played their part. It was a good team effort."
In doubles play, all three matches went down to the wire. The regionally ranked duo of Wilder Pimentel and Alex Pozo defeated Mercer's Nicolas Guillon and Anderson Scarpa 6-4 at No. 2 doubles. The matches at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles would need tiebreaker points to decide the winner. SIU fell at No. 1 doubles but Daniel Martinez and Peter Molloy defeated Zacharie El Ayat and Ruben Vanoppen, 7-6, to take the doubles point and give the Salukis a 1-0 lead. Poziomski said winning the doubles point jump-started the Salukis.
"As a team we knew how important the doubles point was and we wanted to make sure to get it this time around," Martinez said. "After all the times that Jonny and Mike carried us through the doubles point it felt good that our number two and three team could win the point."
SIU carried their momentum into singles play and cruised to the victory over Mercer by winning five-straight singles matches. Pimentel continued his successful weekend in singles play with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Anderson Scarpa. Pimentel, Rigby and Kianicka all went 2-1 in their singles matches this weekend.
"This was a big win for us," assistant coach Pawel Poziomski said. "After losing to them 4-3 last year we were looking forward to playing them again. We responded in a positive way after a very close win against Eastern Kentucky. Our intensity and focus were superb today."
This is the first time SIU has started the season 2-1 since 2013. It only took Southern three matches to find their second win this season, a large improvement over last season when the Salukis had to play in seven matches before earning a second victory.
SIU will be back in action on Feb. 6th when the team travels to DeKalb, Ill. to face Northern Illinois at 2 p.m.
Match results
All matches in order of finish
Doubles Results
Wilder Pimentel & Alex Pozo def. Nicolas Guillon & Anderson Scarpa 6-4
Arnav Mohanty & Arsav Mohanty def. Jonny Rigby & Michal Kianicka 7-6
Daniel Martinez & Peter Molloy def. Zacharie El Ayat & Ruben Vanoppen 7-6
Singles results
Michal Kianicka def. Nicolas Guillon 6-3, 6-3
Alex Pozo def. Zacharie El Ayat 6-3, 6-3
Wilder Pimentel def. Anderson Scarpa 6-2, 6-3
Jonny Rigby def. Arnav Mohanty 6-3, 6-4
Peter Molloy def. Ruben Vanoppen 6-2, 3-6, 1-0
Arsav Mohanty def. Thomas Kyle 7-5, 7-5
Players Mentioned
