MU men’s tennis competes against three schools

Bernard Garwig, Staff writer

The Mercyhurst men’s tennis team faced off against three separate non-conference schools over the weekend of Feb. 17-19, going 1-2 overall.
On Feb. 17, the Lakers played Lewis University; subsequent days Mercyhurst faced against Hillsdale and Lafayette colleges.
The Lakers fell 3-6 to Lewis University, a school that is ranked 44th nationally for Division II. Lewis went 3-0 in the doubles, defeating Joaquin Aguilera and Nenad Terzic 8-6, followed by 9-7 and 8-4 wins against Conor and Cormac McCooey and Sebastian Pardo and Arseniy Sklyarov.
Singles were split 3-3, but the doubles losses allowed Lewis to take the day. Lakers Terzic (6-3, 6-0), Cormac McCooey (6-4, 6-1) and Sklyarov (4-6, 6-0, 10-8) won against their opponents, while Aguilera, Conor McCooey and Pardo lost against theirs.
Saturday saw Hillsdale College leak out a 5-4 victory over the Lakers. Doubles went to 2-1 to the Lakers, with Aguilera and Terzic winning 9-7 and the McCooey brothers winning 8-5. Joe Paradiso and Dusan Cerny’s match went to Hillsdale 8-1.
Singles saw Hillsdale come out on top 4-2. Terzic (6-1, 3-6, 6-1) and Sklyarov (6-4, 6-4) were the winners for the Lakers. The four losses came in the form of Aguilera, (6-3, 6-4), Cormac McCooey (6-1, 6-2), Conor McCooey (7-5, 6-0) and Pardo (7-5, 3-0, ret.)
On Feb. 19, the Lakers came out on top of Division I Lafayette College in a 6-1 win. Doubles were a 3-0 Lakers sweep, with Terzic and Cormac McCooey (6-1), Aguilera and Sklyarov (7-6 [7-4] tiebreaker) and Conor McCooey and Cerny (6-2) beating their opponents.
Doubles for Division I were observed, and the Lakers took a 1-0 lead as a result. Singles came with five more Laker victories from Terzic (6-3, 6-0), Cormac McCooey (6-4, 6-2), Sklyarov (7-5, 6-4), Pardo (6-1, 6-0) and Cerny (6-3 ,1-6, 7-5).
The sole win from Lafayette came against Conor McCooey (6-4, 6-3).
“We played some pretty strong competition this weekend,” Coach Simon said. “We ended it on a high note by winning both matches.”
The Lakers are now 3-3 overall for the 2016-2017 season.
The next time the men’s tennis team picks up their racquets will be for a Feb. 25 contest against West Liberty University.