ELKHORN, Wis. – The University of Chicago posted its closest win of the season, rallying past Gustavus Adolphus College 5-4 on Sunday.
The No. 13-ranked Maroons improved to 14-4 and the No. 16-ranked Gusties dropped to 14-9.
Gustavus Adolphus nearly took all three doubles matches to start the day. However, the freshman duo of Nicolas Chua and David Liu pulled out a tiebreaker win at No. 3 doubles by a 9-8 (7-5) score.
UChicago used that win to kick start its efforts in singles, where the Maroons swept the bottom four singles spots. The team got straight-set wins from senior Deepak Sabada, freshman Peter Leung, freshman Luke Tsai and Liu.
The match marked UChicago's first 5-4 win of the year – the Maroons were 0-3 in matches that were decided 5-4 going into the day. Their previous closest margin of victory this year was 7-2.
"For the second week in-a-row, Nick and David pulled out a clutch tiebreaker in doubles to give us a crucial point," Head Coach Jay Tee said. "That win gave us a lot of confidence and momentum heading into singles and the bottom of the lineup really took care of business. We are playing our best tennis of the season and are right where we want to be heading into the conference tournament."
UChicago 5, Gustavus Adolphus 4
Singles
1. Mohanad Al-Houni (GAC) def. Nicolas Chua (UC) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4
2. Motasem Al-Houni (GAC) def. Sven Kranz (UC) 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5)
3. Deepak Sabada (UC) def. Andres Saenz (GAC) 6-3, 6-1
4. Peter Leung (UC) def. Brad Entwistle (GAC) 6-1, 6-4
5. Luke Tsai (UC) def. Mitch Elofson (GAC) 7-5, 6-1
6. David Liu (UC) def. Zach Ekstein (GAC) 6-2, 7-5
Doubles
1. Motasem Al-Houni/Andres Saenz (GAC) def. Deepak Sabada/Ankur Bhargava (UC) 8-4
2. Mohanad Al-Houni/Brad Entwistle (GAC) def. Luke Tsai/Max Hawkins (UC) 8-1
3. Nicolas Chua/David Liu (UC) def. Mitch Elofson/T. Connor Shives (GAC) 9-8 (7-5)
NEXT MATCHES:
- Friday-Monday, April 24-27 – UChicago at UAA Championship (Altamonte Springs, Fla.)
