Men's Tennis Stumbles Against SBU, WU

TULSA, Okla. – After nearly three-weeks off due to weather issues in the region No. 18 Southeastern returned to the court for a pair of matches in Tulsa, Okla., falling to Southwest Baptist 4-3 before suffering a 5-2 loss to Washburn.
 
The losses drop the Savage Storm to 2-3 overall on the season with its next action scheduled for March 5 and 6 in Wichita Falls, Texas, taking on Midwestern State and Metro State.
 
In the weekend's first matchup versus SBU, SE opened with a tough loss in the doubles point as Guilherme Dos Santos and Thabo Ncubu pulled out a 706 tiebreaker win at two doubles, but a tiebreaker loss at one doubles coupled with a loss at number three left the Storm in  1-0 hole.
 
The evened up when Juan Scoppetta picked up a win at one singles when his opponent was forced to withdraw due to injury with Scoppetta leading 3-0 in the first set.
 
Ncube put Southeastern in front with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Fabian Neff at number five, but the Bearcats would knot the match at 2-2 with a win at number four.
 
Pilotto would fall in three sets at number three singles, while Gen Naraya was tripped up in three sets at number six in the clinching match for SBU.
 
Dos Santos would fashion the final score of 4-3 by picking up a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win at number two.
 
In the final match of the weekend versus Washburn, the Storm picked up the doubles point to take the early 1-0 lead.
 
The pair of Pilotto and Scopetta cruised to a 6-0 win at two doubles, while George Botha and Marin Jurkovic picked up a 6-2 win at one doubles.
 
SE would suffer losses at two, six, and three to fall behind 3-1 before Scoppetta got back in the win column with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Raul-Alin Dicu.
 
Unfortunately, the Storm would fall at numbers four and five to round out the match, setting the final score at 5-2 in favor of Washburn.