Edgewood Summary | Augustana Summary | GameDay Preivew

MADISON, Wis. — The Saint Mary's University men's tennis team continued its nonconference dominance on Saturday, as the Cardinals made it look easy in beating Edgewood 9-0 and Augustana 6-3 at the Nielsen Tennis Center.

With the convincing victories, the Cardinals improved to 10-1 in games played outside the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, with the lone blemish a 6-3 setback to Ursinus during the first day of the team's spring-break trip to Orlando, Fla., on March 4.

“What an awesome day of tennis,” said SMU coach Jeff Halberg. “The guys got off to a great start with the win over Edgewood, and then just put forth an incredible effort in knocking off Augustana — the 14th-ranked team in the region.

“Beating Augustana took a total team effort,” Halberg added. “Just an awesome display of guts and determination.”

The Cardinals opened with a 3-0 lead after the doubles portion of their match against Edgewood, winning 8-3 at No. 1, 9-8 at No. 2 and 8-4 at No. 3.

SMU would add five straight-set singles wins — dropping just nine games in the 10 sets — while Sam Puff (Eden Prairie, Minn.) needed a third set to outlast the Eagles' Patrick Lagman, as the SMU senior recorded a hard-fought, 6-4, 4-6, 15-13 victory.

And SMU picked up right where it left off in its second match of the day against Augustana.

The Cardinals were unfazed by the Vikings' No. 14 ranking in the latest NCAA Division III regional polls, held a 2-1 edge after doubles, then won four of the six singles matches — including three-set wins by Andrew Rangitsch (Oakdale, Minn.) at No. 4 and Collin Kaczorowski (Suamico, Wis.) at No. 6. Rangitsch won a 7-6 (6-3), 4-6, 14-12 marathon, while Kaczorowski was a 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 victor.

With his three-set win over Augustana's Grant Vick and a straight-set win over Edgewood's Ben Pratscher, Kaczorowski pushed his singles record to 13-1 — and his winning streak to nine straight. Rangitsch also won both of his singles matches Saturday, while Gavin Smith (White Bear Lake, Minn.), Warren Lawrenz (Rochester, Minn.) and Krystian Drozdz (Franklin Park, Ill.) tallied wins vs. Edgewood and Puff and Bobby Steingraeber (La Crosse, Wis.) chipped in wins vs. Augustana.

With Saturday's wins, SMU improved to 11-4 overall. The Cardinals are now off until April 3, when they host Milwaukee School of Engineering in a nonconference match at the Winona Tennis Center beginning at noon.