ALMA, Mich. – The Calvin University men's tennis team improved to 6-0 in MIAA play with a 7-0 sweep of Alma College on Thursday.
Calvin (8-7, 6-0 MIAA) earned the win over Alma (2-13, 1-5) with a clean sweep of all nine matches, including all three doubles contests, to earn its second win of the final week of the regular season and set up a match for the conference championship on Saturday against Kalamazoo College.
The Knights opened the match with doubles, where it won the three matches by the scores of 6-3, 6-0 and 6-4 to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
In singles,
Rodrigo Alipio (Santos, São Paulo, Brazil/COC Universitario) won 6-2, 6-0 at the top of the line-up, followed by a 6-0, 6-0 win by
Caleb Bartels (Loch Lloyd, Mo./Kansas City Christian) in the two-singles spot. Both players pushed their singles winning streaks to 10 straight this season with their wins.
Felipe Sartori (Estr. Basiléia/Colégio Giusto Zonzini) (6-4, 6-1),
Diego Castellanos (Tarija, Bolivia/La Salle Tarija), Mario Neto (Boa Vista, Brazil/Reino) (6-4, 6-0) and
Tanner Warners (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian) (6-0, 6-1) also won in straight sets to close out the singles line-up.
With the wins, Alipio, Bartels, Sartori and Castellanos all improved to 6-0 in singles during MIAA play this season.
NEXT UP: Calvin men's tennis will return to action on Saturday, April 25, when it hosts Kalamazoo at Strikwerda Tennis Center in a match of 6-0 MIAA records on the final day of the regular season. The match will start at 11:00 AM.
