UW-La Crosse Match Summary

WINONA, Minn. — It took three sets — and then some — for Walter Mannino (Chicago, Ill.) and Steve Clements (La Crosse, Wis.) to pick up singles wins for the Saint Mary's University men's tennis team in its nonconference match against UW-La Crosse Thursday evening.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the rest of the matches weren't nearly as long — or with the same favorable outcome.

UW-La Crosse swept all three doubles matches and won the other four singles matches in straight sets in handing SMU a 7-2 setback at the SMU Tennis Center.

"It was a tough day," said SMU coach Jeff Halberg, whose team fell to 1-4  overall with the loss. "Walter and Steve won two marathon matches, but we didn't have much more after that."

Mannino outlasted the Eagle's Mike Mooren at No. 1 singles, bouncing back from a 6-7 first set loss to post a 6-7, 6-4, 12-10 victory, while Clements also went the maximum three sets, beating Paul Vickers 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 at No. 5.

That's where the Cardinals' success ended, however, as UW-L dropped just 15 games in the other four singles matches and won the three doubles matches 8-5, 8-5 and 8-3 to secure the win.

"Give (UW-La Crosse) credit, they played a very good match," said Halberg. "We did some good things — there were a lot of very good points — we just weren't able to put enough of them together to beat them."