Men's tennis topples Bethany Lutheran, Ripon

OWATONNA, Minn. – The Simpson men's tennis team evened its record on the young season by sweeping a pair of matches on Saturday, beating Bethany Lutheran 8-1 and Ripon 5-4.

Zach Kusick and Peter Reitgraf combined to go 8-0 on the day as the Storm (2-2) cruised against Bethany Lutheran and gutted out three, super-tiebreaker wins to nip Ripon.

Simpson closes the weekend against Bethel at 8 a.m. on Sunday.

Simpson 8, Bethany Lutheran 1

Kusick, Reitraf and Dylan Hogan won in straight sets as No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively. Geoff Converse won a second set tiebreaker at No. 4 before going on to a 10-4 win over Troy Hoyord in the super-tiebreaker, winning 3-6, 7-6 (2), 10-4. Mike Rundle recovered from a 6-0 loss in the second set to beat Zachary Carlson 6-3, 0-6, 11-9 at No. 5.

Kusick and Reitgraf cruised to an 8-1 win at No. 1 doubles while Hogan and Converse earned a 9-7 win over Jason Buechler and Hoyord at No. 2. Rundle and Jimmy Siebert gave Simpson the doubles sweep with a 9-8 (10-8) win over Carlson and Paul Riediger at No. 3.

Simpson 5, Ripon 4

Unlike the first competition of the day, Kusick and Reitgraf needed to earn wins at No. 1 and No. 2 singles against Ripon. Kusick got down a set before beating Eric Seiler 1-6, 6-3, 10-5. Reitgraf came out on top of a roller coaster match against Ryan Long, winning 7-6 (7), 0-6, 11-9.

Converse won Simpson's third, super-tiebreaker of the day with a 6-2, 3-6, 10-7 win over Brian Schumacher at No. 4 singles. Hogan added a 6-2, 6-4 win against Ryan Slowinski at No. 3.

Kusick and Reitgraf won Simpson's only doubles match, beating Seiler and Long 8-6 at the No. 1 spot.

Simpson trailed 4-1 at one point against Ripon before getting wins at 1-4 singles. Completed matches left the score 4-4 with only Reitgraf's match in progress, as he was able to come away with an 11-9 win in the super tiebreaker to get the team win.