The UIC men's tennis team had its season come to a close Sunday evening with a 4-0 loss to Michigan State. The Spartans won the doubles point and tallied the clinching points early in the singles competition, halting the remaining singles matches in which the Flames were competitive or even leading their counterparts.
Johan Hedstrom and
Christian San Andres got the match started at #3 doubles where they fell, 6-3, to MSU's duo of Koenen and Francken. Nico Wasilewicz and
Alvaro de la Fuente were locked in a tight battle with Shisler and Forman at #2, but the Spartans were able to get the final crucial points and take a 7-6 decision. The loss dropped the Flames' duo under .500 for the season with a final doubles record of 4-5.
The Flames' most prolific doubles team,
Carl Hedstrom and
Marcelo Dib, finished the season at 8-2, 4-1 in the Horizon League. Their set against Harvey and Dube was rendered moot after Michigan State clinched the point, and was called with the Flames ahead 6-5.
Michigan State struck quickly on the singles courts. Koenen earned them a point on the #2 court, where he took down Wasilewicz, 6-3, 6-0. Forman made it 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #1 over
Carl Hedstrom. Action was intense and for the most part, evenly matched on three of the four remaining active courts. But on #4, Rakic took a straight sets victory over San Andres, 6-4, 6-3 to give Michigan State the fourth and decisive point.
Dib was on top of Dube at #3, 7-6, 3-2, when the match was called. De la Fuente bounced back from a disastrous first set to force a third, 0-6, 6-4, 4-5; and
Johan Hedstrom led Shisler 6-0, 3-6, 3-2.
"We got a good effort in singles and doubles. The guys left it all out there in the last match of the season," head coach
Hans Neufeld said. "Johan played solid and was leading up a break in the third set." Hedstrom finished the dual match season with four singles wins. San Andres led the Flames with 11 wins, Dib was second with eight, and Wasilewicz' six placed him in third.
Only one graduating senior will leave the Flames squad that was over 50% freshmen.
Johan Hedstrom,
Kailash Panchapakesan, San Andres,
William Wale, and Wasilewicz will all return with three years of eligibility remaining. Dib and de la Fuente will be the elder statesmen of the team, returning as juniors in the fall.
Neufeld knows that while in some cases his young charges got a baptism by fire, the immersion into live competition will pay dividends down the road. "It was good for the freshmen to see where they are and what it will take to get to the next level," he said. "They improved through the spring and need to develop in the off season."
The Flames finished the year with a record of 6-12, including an 0-7 mark in Horizon League play. A three match winning streak early in the season provided some important momentum, while wins in the first two home matches of the season – including a dramatic 4-3 win over South Dakota State in which several players played up in the lineup – were later highlights.
