WINONA, Minn. — As if having to square off against one of the conference's best teams wasn't tough enough, the Saint Mary's University men's tennis team had to do it short-handed.
With
Sam Puff (Eden Prairie, Minn.) out with an injury and
Pawel Szczepkowski (Opolskie, Poland) unable to compete in singles due to illness, the short-handed Cardinals were no match for high-powered St. Thomas, as the Tommies rolled to a 9-0 conference win at the Winona Tennis Center Sunday afternoon.
“St. Thomas is a tough, tough team, and to be without Sam and Pawel, it was just too much to ask,” said SMU coach
Jeff Halberg. “Our guys gave it everything they had, (St. Thomas) was just too much).
After sweeping through the three doubles matches, the Tommies collected five straight-set singles wins, with SMU's
Michael Lunka (Eagan, Minn.) the only Cardinal to go three sets, falling to UST's Andy Michaels, 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 at No. 1.
The Cardinals, who fall to 5-5 overall and 1-4 in conference play, are back in action on Friday, playing host to North Central (Minn.) in a 6 p.m. nonconference match at the Winona Tennis Center.
Match Summary vs. St. Thomas
