Men’s tennis clean sweeps IUPUI and Thomas More

Xavier men’s tennis had a busy schedule recently, playing four matches in less than a week.

The Musketeers powered their way through two of their matches in a dominating fashion — securing clean sweeps against IUPUI last Wednesday and against Thomas More two days later.

Xavier was narrowly edged out by Big East foe Georgetown by a final tally of 4-3 and closed out the four-game stretch of matches with a 4-0 loss at the hands of Indiana.

Against the Jaguars, the No. 2 (senior Matthew Graft and freshman Shashank Reddy) and No. 3 doubles (junior Jan Vrba and senior Michael Lee) teams both won to pick up the doubles point.

Xavier also swept singles, with junior Brett Winters spearheading the cause with a 7-5, 6-4 win in straight sets at the No. 1 spot.

Junior Srdan Pejic won in three sets at No. 2 singles, while No. 3 (Graft), No. 4 (Shashank), No. 5 (freshman Aaron Thompson) and No. 6 (freshman Jake Zipoli) singles all ended in straight set wins for the Musketeers.

On Sunday against Georgetown, the Musketeers lost at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, and the Hoyas took the doubles point. Winters picked up another straight set win at No. 1 singles, while Georgetown picked up a three-set win at No. 2 singles and No. 4 singles.

Graft won in straight sets in No. 3 singles, and Thompson won in straight sets in No. 5 singles with identical 6-4, 6-4 scores. However, Georgetown claimed a win in the No. 6 singles slot to take the match 4-3.

Against Thomas More, Xavier once again picked up the doubles point with wins at No. 1 (Pejic-Winters) and No. 3 (sophomore Dominic Macaluso-Zipoli) doubles, and every singles player secured a straight set win for the Musketeers to complete the 7-0 victory.

The Musketeers concluded their recent string of matches on the road Monday against the Hoosiers. In a shortened match, Xavier fell 4-0 with three matches going unfinished due to the singles and doubles points being won by Indiana prior to the completion of other matches.

Xavier continues its spring season Friday in Cincinnati against St. John’s.