Saturday, April 02, 2011

Valparaiso’s men’s tennis team began its weekend road trip in the state of Ohio on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 7-0 decision to Cleveland State at the Peak Performance Tennis Club in Broadview Heights, Ohio.

Cleveland State (9-7, 3-0 Horizon) opened the match winning all three doubles contests.  Valpo’s Adam Whitmer (Shipshewana, Ind./Westview H.S.) and Siddarth Mehta (South Bend, Ind./Clay H.S.) had the tightest match at the third spot, falling 8-6 to Yannick Goossens and Aris Spirtos.  Kevin DeHerrera (Littleton, Colo./Chatfield H.S.) and Kyle Stump (Plymouth, Ind./Plymouth H.S.) fell 8-3 at the second spot to Matt Ford and Matt Kuelker while Jose Gaspar (Sao Paulo, Brazil/CEAD H.S.) and Eric Honert (Arvada, Colo./Ralston Valley H.S.) dropped an 8-1 decision to John Haley and Robert Fox at the top of the order.

In singles play, Whitmer won the opening set against Chris Klepatz before falling in three sets 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 at the fourth spot.  Honert went to a tie-break in the first set before losing 7-6 (6), 6-1 against Kuelker at number three singles.  Goossens was a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Gaspar at the top spot while Fox downed DeHerrera 6-2, 6-2 at number two.  Haley was a 6-3, 6-1 victor over Stump at five while Ford topped Michael Woodson (Raleigh, N.C./Ravenscroft H.S.) 6-1, 6-2 at number six.

Valparaiso (5-9, 0-3) will close the weekend trip on Sunday morning with a match at Youngstown State.  First serve is set for 7 a.m. CDT.