Owatonna, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica men's tennis team arrived back in Duluth Sunday night after acquiring back-to-back wins and a clean sweep over two Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) opponents. This pair of Saints wins avenges the previous 3-6, 4-5 defeats the Saints suffered last year to this pairing of teams in their maiden year in the MIAC.

The Saints started the weekend in the Sartell bubble thrashing Saint John's University (SJU) by a 9-0 margin. The next day the Saints rose up and traveled to Owatonna Tennis Center where they were able to pull out a 5-4 thriller against a Saint Olaf Ole squad that sneaked by the Saints last season by the same scoreline.

CSS vs SJU

Doubles
The Saints started perfectly winning all three doubles matches with the No. 1 team of Jonas Abeleda (Sydney, Australia/St Aloysius' College) and Eamon Gerrard-Stace (Brisbane, Au.) winning 8-5.
 
The No. 2 team of Julius Tabrizi (Frankfurt, Germany/Bischof-Neumann) and Jack Onkka (Thief River Falls, Minn.) acquired a bagel score line and W next, winning 8-0.
 
To wrap up the doubles portion of the dual match the No. 3 tandem of Carter Anderson (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing HS) and Reece Patten (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) collected the 8-6 victory. 

Singles
In singles play, the Saints won all of their six matches. Abeleda won at the No. 1 spot by scores of 6-2, 7-5.

At the No. 2 line Eamon Gerrard-Stace (Brisbane, Au.) came back from a set down to claim a 3-6, 7-5, (10-4) win. 
 
Rookie Julius Tabrizi (Frankfurt, Germany/Bischof-Neumann) cruised via a straight set 6-1, 6-0 victory at the No. 3 line. 
 
Carter Anderson (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing HS) was pushed to a third set where he was able to complete the comeback down 1-7 in the superbreaker to put the 7th win into the Saints column. 
 
To put the icing on top of the cake Riley Versich (Kelly Lake, Minn./Hibbing HS (Itasca CC)) and Reece Patten (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) both were able to take care of business on the No. 5 and No. 6 courts dispatching their respective opponents by scores of 6-4,6-3 and 6-0, 6-3.

CSS vs Saint Olaf

Doubles
CSS would find themselves facing adversity early when they were down 0-2 in the doubles leg and 2-5 at the No. 3 line before the Saints were able to minimize the damage and come away with a win at the #3 line. 
 
The #1 and #2 doubles courts fought hard but came up empty-handed after a few break points and deciding points stymied both duos by matching 5-8, 5-8 scores. 
 
Partners Patten and Anderson and would claw back and grab a 8-6 victory from the Oles after they went down 3 games, at one point looking at a 2-5 deficit late in the match. 
 
Singles
In singles play, the Saints would turn on the jets and never look back, coming away with the four must needed singles wins needed to take the match from Saint Olaf. 
 
At the No. 3 court Tabrizi claimed his second singles victory of the weekend 6-1,6-2. 
 
The anchoring singles positions of #5 and #6 for the Saints came away with critical victories when Versich stymied his opponent 6-1, 6-1 and Patten won in straight sets 7-5, 6-1.
 
Abeleda sealed the deal with a 6-3, 6-4 win adding the fifth and final deciding dual match point to the Saints tally and clinching the match for Saint Scholastica. 

Anderson also fought hard at the No. 4 spot pushing his opponent to an entertaining superbreaker where he ultimately was defeated by scores of 4-6, 6-4, 0-1, (7-10)

With their victories Versich and Patten now have a team high 4 singles win a piece. Saint Scholastica moves to 3-4 as a team and 2-3 in MIAC play. 
 
Up Next
The Saints will return to the metro area for non-conference action against a former UMAC counterpart in Northwestern and Iowa school Simpson College. Play is slated to begin in Bloomington at 11:30 a.m beginning with the Eagles followed by Simpson at 3.