DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern men's tennis split its opening weekend, cruising to a 7-0 victory over Austin College before suffering a 4-3 loss to top-five ranked Cowley County CC.
 
The split gets the Savage Storm off to a 1-1 star on the season.
 
"Men took care of business," said head coach Brian Nelson, "Against Division III Austin College from Sherman. It was great weather outside and nice to get in a good match before playing a tough Cowley team. Cowley men are ranked number 4 in the country in Juco."
 
"We started out well," Nelson continued, "Winning the doubles point. Jason Roberts then won quickly at 6 singles to put us up 2-0. We decided to play super breakers for the third being a non-division match and unfortunately were only able to get 1 of 3 matches where we split. The last match came down to Danrich Kruger at three singles where Danrich won the first and served for the match at 5-4, but his opponent stayed strong and was able to take it in the super tiebreak. It was good to have that type of match early in the year though as we can learn from it and know how it feels when one big D2 match comes along later."
 
SE jumped ahead early in its opener against Austin College, starting with a 6-0 win at two doubles by Manuel Pilotto and Juan Scoppetta.
 
That was followed by the doubles-clinching victory at the one spot by Benjamin Finet and Danrich Kruger who picked up a 6-1 victory.
 
Jason Roberts and Milos Vuckovic completed the doubles sweep for SE with a 6-3 win at the three positon.
 
The momentum continued to roll into singles play as Scoppetta picked up a 6-3, 6-3 win at the one spot to take a 2-0 lead.
 
It expanded to 3-0 with a 6-4, 6-2 win by Pilotto at the two position.
 
Kruger would clinch the match with a 7-6, 6-0 win at the number three position.
 
Finet was the next to finish, taking the five spot 6-3, 6-2, while Vuckovic followed with a 6-1, 6-0 win at number four and Roberts rounded out the full sweep with a 6-1, 6-0 win at the six spot.
 
The Storm got off to a good start against Cowley, with Finet and Kruger winning at one doubles 6-0 while a Pilotto and Scoppetta win at the two positon would give SE a 1-0 lead heading to singles play.
 
CCCC would pick up wins at the top two spots to take a 2-1 lead but a 6-4, 6-2 win by Roberts at the six position would even the score at 2-2.
 
A loss at four would put the Storm back in a hole, but a 7-5, 6-7, 10-5 win by Finet at the five spot would again even the score at 3-3, but that was short-lived as an SE loss at the three spot would be the clincher for Cowley County.