Men's tennis wins as women fall short

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The men’s and women’s tennis teams both faced double-headers last weekend at the Paramount Tennis Club in Westlake--the men took home two authoritative wins on the weekend, beating both Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne and Oberlin, while the women fell to Bowling Green and Toledo. 

The men’s team beat IPFW 6-1, and closed out Oberlin 7-0. 

“Last weekend was a good match. They fought hard, but we stayed one step ahead,” said Brian Etzkin, the coach of Men’s and Women’s Tennis. 

Against IPFW, the doubles team of Ali Shabib and Joe Vanmeter won an 8-1 match, helping Cleveland State roar out of the gate. Matt Kuelker and Manuel Bellutti won a much closer match, 8-6. Cleveland State players took all but one of the singles wins. 

With the win against Oberlin, the Men’s Tennis team brought their score on the season to 5-4. 

Senior Matt Kuelker had a lot of success last weekend--against both IPFW and Oberlin, he played in a winning doubles team. He also picked up singles wins against both teams. Kuelker won the 70th singles match of his college career. 

“Matt has played all over the top half of the lineup for the last thre years,” Etzkin said. “He could move up a few more spots on the all-time win list.” 

The women’s tennis team continues to struggle--they lost against Bowling Green 1-6, though they came very close to taking the doubles point--it came down to a 7-8 defeat in the third match. In singles, sophomore Mathilde Orange picked up the team’s only point. 

The next day against Toledo, women’s tennis lost 2-5. Freshman Lauren Golick, coming back from an injury, got one of the Vikings’ points. The other one came from another freshman, Princess Gbadamosi. 

Most of the matches were close, but after the weekend women’s tennis has a score of 1-7 on the season. 

“The women aren’t 1-7 for lack of effort,” Etzkin said. He said that the womens’ team has had trouble with injuries and illness--but recently, they’re starting to recover. 

“Today might be day one moving forward,” Etzkin said.
Cleveland State’s tennis teams will both play next on Feb. 28, in Saint Louis, Missouri.