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UW-Eau Claire hands Cardinal men second straight 9-0 setback
WINONA, Minn. — For the Saint Mary's University men's tennis team, the search continues.
Not only for their first win of the year, but for their first win of the year.
The Cardinals suffered their second straight 9-0 setback Friday evening, as UW-Eau Claire cruised to the nonconference victory at the SMU Tennis Center.
"It's tough to lose your first two matches 9-0, but this match was much closer than the final score indicates," said SMU coach Jeff Halberg, whose team opened the season with a 9-0 loss to Carleton on Feb. 2. "We played very well in all three doubles matches and two of the six singles matches went three sets — we just weren't able to get the breaks when we needed them."
The Blugolds cruised to straight-set singles wins at Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 6, but needed three sets to beat Tom Vollman (Oak Park, Ill.), 6-3, 4-6, 12-10 at No. 2 and Adam Solseth (Shakopee, Minn.), 6-1, 2-6, 10-8 at No. 3.
"Eau Claire is a very good team," said Halberg. "But I thought we played some pretty solid tennis. There were a number of matches that could have gone either way."