Upsetting No. 58 Nebraska on Friday, the men's tennis team picked up the program’s first Big Ten win of the season, outlasting the Cornhuskers, 4-3.
The team went back to the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility on Sunday to beat the No. 71-ranked Hawkeyes, 5-2.
The two straight wins against nationally-ranked teams improve the Spartans’ home record (now 8-10 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) t o 8-1 this season.
Contributing to both victories in the two weekend matches were the MSU doubles teams, claiming the doubles points for the eighth and ninth times this season, an impressive feat MSU will continue to rely on the rest of the season against tougher Big Ten opponents.
In the Nebraska match, senior Drew Lied and sophomore John Mullane d efeated Nebraska’s Brandon Videtich a nd Bradford Zitsch, 8-6.
Lied and Mullane returned on Sunday to handily win, 8-4, against Iowa’s Michael Swank a nd Joey White.
Juniors Gijs Linders an d Harry Jadu cli nched the doubles point on the first day with an 8-6 w in over the Cornhuskers’ Beauregard Treyz a nd Marc Herrmann .
On Sunday Linders and Jadun led 6-4, but Iowa came back and Jadun forced a 7-7 match going into the tiebreak, leading to a strong 8-7 Spartan finish and the eventual victory over the Hawkeyes.
“It was good just to be able to close the matches out,” head coach Gene Orlando s aid of the doubles point that upset Nebraska on Friday. “Once we got a little deeper into the matches, we’ve been there before and to see number one clinch it and then number two, close it out, it was really good.
“It gave us some momentum heading into singles."
In singles against Nebraska, the Spartans won three of the six matches.
Mullane, L inders and freshman Mac Roy helped clinch the win for MSU.
MSU won four of six singles ma tches against the Hawkeyes, with Jadun, freshman Brett Forman, L ied and Mullane coming out victorious.
Mullane remains unbeaten in the Big Ten with a 5-0 record.
The Spartans played without senior co-captain Aaron Pfister — a starter in both doubles and singles — in both matches with an injury early last week.
Continuing with their ?Big Ten schedule, the Spartans will face No. 10 Illinois on Friday.
