Bellarmine beats Illinois Springfield 6-3

3/29/2014 8:24:00 PM

By: by Jeremy Hopkins, Bellarmine Sports Information

Springfield, Ill. -- The Bellarmine University men's tennis team traveled to Springfield, Ill. on Friday and came away with a 6-3 victory over the Prairie Stars of Illinois Springfield in the Knights' second Great Lakes Valley Conference match of the season.

"We had to play our absolute hardest to win this match against a strong UIS squad that was solid from top to bottom," said head coach John Mican. Jimmy Fernandez and Logan Knott put the Knights on the board first with a convincing 8-2 win at number three doubles as the Knights number two doubles team of Zachary Kuo and Jose Legarreta couldn't get on track and fell also by a score of 8-2. The number one doubles came down to some clutch serving by Alex Swords and Alan Gardiner as they broke their opponents in the final game of the match to take a 9-7 win, putting the Knights ahead 2-1 after the doubles.

In singles, Logan Knott earned the Knights' first point with a 6-1, 6-1 win.

"Logan had to work a lot harder than the final score might indicate," said Mican.

Zachary Kuo played strong tennis at number one but eventually fell 6-3, 6-4. At that point the match was still very much in doubt as Jimmy Fernandez lost his first set, Jose Legarreta was down 4-1 in the first set and Alan Gardiner and Alex Swords were locked in tight battles.

The next fifteen minutes were key to winning the match. Jimmy Fernandez completely turned the match around, winning the final two sets and only dropping two games. Jose Legarreta found his game and won the first set in a tie break and went up 5-0 in the second set. Alex Swords won the first set and got on top 4-1 in the second set. Alex finally cliched the match for the Knights on his fifth match point. Alan Gardiner fought hard at number three singles but couldn't pull out the win with a 10-6 super tie-break loss in a two hour battle after the match had been decided.

"The fact that we had to work so hard for this match made the win very rewarding," said Mican.

Bellarmine 6, Illinois Springfield 3
Mar 28, 2014 at Springfield, IL

Singles competition

1. Jose Luis Ortega (UISM) def. Kuo, Zachary (BU) 6-3, 6-4

2. Legarreta, Jose (BU) def. Cole Buehnerkemper (UISM) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3

3. Hayden Esker (UISM) def. Gardiner, Alan (BU) 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 10-6

4. Swords, Alex (BU) def. Ben Main (UISM) 6-3, 6-3

5. Fernandez, Jimmy (BU) def. Santiago Pedraza (UISM) 2-6, 6-1, 6-0

6. Knott, Logan (BU) def. Billy Shinn (UISM) 6-2, 6-1

Doubles competition

1. Kuo, Zachary/Legarreta, Jose (BU) def. Jose Luis Ortega/Santiago Pedraza (UISM) 9-7

2. Cole Buehnerkemper/Hayden Esker (UISM) def. Gardiner, Alan/Swords, Alex (BU) 8-3

3. Fernandez, Jimmy/Knott, Logan (BU) def. Ben Main/Billy Shinn (UISM) 8-2

Match Notes

Bellarmine 5-7, 2-0 GLVC

Illinois Springfield 3-8, 0-1 GLVC

Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (,2,3)

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