Freshman Drew Keene serves during a doubles match against Niagara at the MSU Tennis Center Jan. 25, 2020. The Spartans defeated the Purple Eagles, 7-0.
Michigan State men's tennis defeated the Niagara Purple Eagles in 7-0 dominating fashion Saturday night at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility.
The win came as part of a doubleheader where the Spartans defeated Ball State 4-2 earlier in the day. Both of those wins come a week after a matchup versus Middle Tennessee State where the Spartans were victims of an embarrassing 6-1 defeat.
MSU came out very strong to start the match as they won all three of the doubles matchups. This was the complete opposite of what happened earlier in the doubleheader as MSU had dropped all three doubles matchups against Ball State.
Michigan State coach Gene Orlando was proud of the team for being able to turn things around. “We came out with a little more purpose,” he said. “Obviously we wanted to make right from this morning. We were a lot more determined.”
The strong doubles effort was led by the Spartans’ third pairing of Kazuki Matsuno and Josh Mukherjee. They were able to take down the Purple Eagles’ Bruno Goncalves and Pere Padrio with a score of 6-0. This win moved the pairing to a record of 3-1 on the season, the best on the team.
“They have been playing really rock solid for us,” Orlando said. “Basically they were able to hold serve and not give them any chances.”
MSU won the other two doubles matchups fairly easy with scores of 6-3 and 6-2.
One of the more impressive performances was by MSU’s Carson Gates. After dominating his singles performance earlier in the day versus Ball State, Gates was able to one-up his own performance. Gates defeated Niagara’s Josh Wilson 6-1 and 6-1, surrendering one less set than earlier.
“I was hitting some good serves. I had a lot of aces and then I was able to get to the net and finish some points,” Gates said.
Orlando noticed Gates' performance as well.
“He is going to make you earn everything. ... You have to be ready to pack a lunch because he is going to keep you out there all day if you want to win against him,” Orlando said.
As for the other singles matchups, the Spartans played quite well with none of the six matches needing a third set.
Michigan State’s Anthony Pero and Niagara’s Jorge Sedeno were engaged in an intense first set in their matchup. Pero started off hot gaining a 3-1 edge, then Sedeno stormed back to even the score at five a piece. Pero was able to win the set by earning the next two points. He then capped off the matchup with a 6-2 second set victory.
The Spartans' next matchup will be at 2 p.m. next Friday as the will travel to take on Penn.
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