Musketeer Tennis records undefeated weekend

By Spencer Tracy, Staff Writer

The Men’s Tennis team traveled to Cleveland last weekend to take on Cleveland State and St. Bonaventure, while the Women’s team visited Dayton for a match before finishing off their weekend at Miami of Ohio. The Men’s team was looking to build off their first win of the season against Northern Kentucky two weeks ago, but needed better performances on the road where their season began. 

However, the Women’s team looks to erase the beating given by Notre Dame from their memory with two wins against Ohio schools.

The men’s team went with their usual lineup despite dropping their first doubles match but responded with a gut wrenching win as Switzerland native Pascal Mosberger helped take down the Vikings in a tiebreaker set alongside senior Cambell Nakayama. 

Mosberger is a junior at Xavier making his Musketeer Tennis debut in well-deserved fashion with a key double win, swinging the momentum to Xavier while Sophomore Marco Pennelli and junior Jorge Santamaria won the final doubles match 6-4.

Photo courtesy of goxavier.com

Men’s tennis senior Cambell Nakayama showed out for the Musketeers over the weekend, prevailing in all of his matches, helping to lead Xavier to a 4-3 win over Cleveland State and a 6-1 win over St. Bonaventure.

Nakayama won his match in the third set although Cahill dropped his match, losing in the third set despite winning the first set by dominating the tiebreaker. Deacon, Santamaria, Pennelli and freshman Kyle Totorica all prevailed in their singles matches, sweeping each opponent as the Musketeers beat Cleveland State 4-3.

The Men’s tennis squad had no days off as they hit the courts Sunday morning against St. Bonaventure, coming off their 4-3 win against Cleveland State. Xavier wasn’t done winning and swept St. Bonaventure in doubles but lost the first set of singles. Pennelli cruised over his opponent, beating him in two sets by a combined 12-0 score. Nakayama continued the dominance with his two-set win by a combined 12-2 score. Xavier crushed St. Bonaventure with a 6-1 victory and swept the weekend, creating great momentum against IUPUI Friday and Indiana Sunday.

Coming off their tough loss against Notre Dame two weeks ago, Xaviers’ Women’s team opened the Friday night lights matchup against Dayton with a clean sweep in doubles. Freshman Abby Nugent and Emily Flowers, along with junior Imani Graham, steam-rolled their opponents by a combined 36-10 score over three matches. Junior Blessing Nwaozuzu took her opponent to three sets and prevailed, beating her opponent 6-1 in the first and third sets, resulting in a Flyers embarrassing 7-0 loss. 

Miami of Ohio was the next victim for the tennis squad coming off their most dominating win of the season, however, they were quickly humbled after only taking one of three in their doubles matches. Nugent finished first with a quick win along with Flowers, who also swept her opponent, as Nugent and Flowers finished with an undefeated record this weekend. Graham lost in her third set despite a strong 6-1 second set win while freshman Abigail Siminski won in three dueling sets improving her overall singles record to 3-2. Xavier’s strong efforts served well as they took down Miami 4-3 making it a perfect weekend for Xavier tennis. The Women’s team will go on the road to face Indiana and Purdue next weekend.