ROCKFORD, Ill. - The Western Illinois Men's Tennis team fell to Green Bay by a score of 6-1 on Saturday, Feb. 12 at Boylan Tennis Center.
The Fighting Leathernecks (2-3) were able to win one singles and one doubles match against the Phoenix (3-1) but ultimately dropped their third-straight match.
"Green Bay won because they are a very talented team," said head coach Chris Kane. "We received excellent play from the top and bottom of our lineup, but got nothing from the middle. Jeff Cote and Patrick Hammers played some outstanding doubles to beat a very tough No. 1 doubles team from Green Bay and have now beaten a quality doubles team in each of their wins this year."
The team of Cote/Hammers took their match at the No. 1 doubles spot by winning 8-7 (9-7 tiebreak) to improve to 4-1 on the season in doubles play.
Western's team of Mandela Shepard/Francisco Ortiz fell at the No. 2 position (8-3) while Alejandro Buceta/Ben Yue dropped their match in the No. 3 spot (8-4)
In singles play, Cote dropped his match against Green Bay's No. 1 Erik Finkenbrink (6-4, 6-4) while Hammers fell at the No. 2 spot (6-1, 6-1).
Buceta was defeated by Craig Cox in a matchup at the No. 3 position (6-2, 6-2) while Mandela Shepard dropped his No. 4 singles match (6-4, 6-2).
Ortiz was defeated at the No. 5 spot (6-2, 6-3) but Jim Capalbo was able to mount a comeback at the No. 6 position to pick up the win (1-6, 7-6 (7-0), 10-5) in three sets.
"I was also very proud of the effort from Jim," said Kane. "He was down two match points at 6-1 and 5-2 but pulled the match out in the third set tiebreaker. We talked strategy and Jim did a great job of hitting his groundstrokes to the middle of the court, taking less risk, making fewer errors and eliminating the angles his opponent was taking advantage of throughout the match. From the middle of the second set on, Jim had nearly zero unforced errors, and that wins tennis matches."
The Leathernecks will return to action against Northwestern at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 19 before traveling to Wisconsin for a 2 p.m. match on Feb. 20.
Northwestern is ranked 70th in the most recent ITA Division I Men's Tennis Poll.
