Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

IIT Box Score

Monmouth Box Score

CHICAGO, Ill. (Feb. 18, 2018) – The North Central College men's tennis team dropped a pair of non-conference matches on Sunday at the Illinois Institute of Technology Triangular, falling 7-2 to the host Scarlet Hawks in the morning, before suffering a 6-3 defeat at the hands of Monmouth College in the nightcap.
 
The Cardinals (2-4) began the opener against IIT in a 3-0 hole after doubles play, leaving little room for error heading into singles competition.
 
IIT (2-3) was able to claim victories at No. 1 and No. 2 singles to seal the match victory, but Adam Winters got the Cardinals on the board with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Abhishek Rana at the No. 3 position.  Tyler Bussell was also victorious, battling back from a 6-4 first-set defeat to take down Mike Rivich, 6-4, 1-0 to earn the win.
 
North Central's second match against Monmouth (1-4) began in identical fashion to the opener, as the Cardinals once again fell behind 3-0 after doubles play.
 
After Monmouth won at No. 3 singles to push its lead to 4-0, Lucas Pindak and Victor Krueger each earned victories to cut the lead in half 4-2.  Pindak earned a 6-3 first-set win over Saxon Day, but things took a turn for the worse in the second set as Pindak suffered a 6-0 defeat.  However, the freshman forgot about the second set and responded with a 10-6 win in the tiebreaker.
 
Krueger made quick work of Dylan Wong at the No. 1 spot, cruising to a 6-2, 6-0 victory, but it proved to be too little too late for the Cardinals at Monmouth captured the match win with straight set victories at No. 2 and No. 3.  Bussell was also victorious for North Central, grinding out a 4-6, 7-6, 10-8 victory over Paulo Pliego at No. 4.
 
North Central continues the non-conference portion of its schedule on Friday, Feb. 23, taking on NCAA Division I opponent Eastern Illinois University with matches slated for 12:30 p.m. at Five Star Tennis Center in Plainfield, Ill.