Monday, October 14, 2002

A team comprised of Valparaiso University alumni tennis players defeated the men's tennis team 6-5 on Saturday afternoon in a bragging rights battle.

The alumni team, comprised of many of the Crusaders top players from the past 14 years, won four of the seven singles matches to pull out the victory.

The teams began playing doubles, with both the current team and the alumni winning two matches. Ben Dunham-Freer and Jeff Vrabel of the current team downed Nate Buckert and Nick Vuko, a pair of all-conference selections last season, 7-5. Tyler Neemann and Nate Gordon also recorded a win for the Crusaders, defeating John Buetow and John Dean 8-3.

The alumni picked up a pair of victories in doubles as well. Marc VeVerka and Brian LeFevre recorded an 8-5 victory over Chris Widmeyer and Mike Menghinie, while Cliff Barnett and Jonathan Huffman were 8-1 winners over the current team's duo of Evan Roller and Luke Wilcox.

The action heated up in singles play. Dunham-Freer downed Buckert 9-7, Widmeyer defeated Barnett 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3, and Wilcox recorded an 8-6 victory over Baldwin to earn three more points for the Crusaders.

The alumni registered four wins though, to pull out the match. VeVerka defeated Vrabel 7-6 (5), 6-3, Vuko downed Neemann 6-2, 6-0, Buetow beat Menghini 8-3, and Huffman recorded a 6-4, 7-5 win over Roller.

The men's tennis team and alumni hope to make the match part of an ongoing tradition over homecoming weekend.