Storm earn first win of spring season

MOUNT VERNON, Iowa - The Simpson College men's tennis team earned its first win of the season by splitting a pair of matches in doubleheader fashion on Saturday.

The Storm (1-5) took on the host Cornell College first, narrowly falling 5-4. The Storm got off to a good start, claiming two of the three doubles points. At No. 2 doubles, Caleb Vasconez and Aaron Price won their match 8-4, as the No. 3 doubles team of Drake Downard and Ethan Humble clinched the doubles portion for Simpson with an 8-1 win.

Love and Downard collected singles wins in straight sets at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively, but the Rams (3-2) swept the first three singles positions to tie the match at four. Humble took the first set of his match at No. 4 singles, 7-5, but after his opponent took the second set, dropped a heartbreaker in the third set. Cornell claimed the match with a 5-4 win, but the Storm were able to rebound in the second match.

The Storm took on Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the second match of the doubleheader, once again getting off to a strong start. The teams of Vasconez and Price and Downard and Humble claimed wins at the same positions again, this time a bit more dramatically. Vasconez and Price won a nailbiter at 8-6, before Downard and Humble won in a tiebreak, 8-7 (7-2), to put the Storm up 2-1 heading into singles.

Javier Robles Solis forced a third set at No. 2 singles, but fell to the Pointers' (3-7) Diego Mosquera in a super tiebreak. The Pointers won at No. 1 singles to go up 3-2, but the Storm rattled off four straight wins at No. 3 through No. 6 singles to claim a 6-3 win.

Downard won all four of his matches on the day, the only Storm player to do so. Price and Humble each won three matches out of four, as the Storm earned its first victory of the young campaign.

Up Next
The Storm are back in action next Saturday for another doubleheader at St. Scholastica in Minnesota.

Cornell 5, Simpson 4

Doubles
1. Federico Polidori/Alexander Hadler (CC) def. Grant Love /Javier Robles (SIM) 8-4
2. Caleb Vasconez/Aaron Price (SIM) def. Zachary Ong/Chris Penas-Hull (CC) 8-4
3. Drake Downard/Ethan Humble (SIM) def. Edwin Holyoake/August Krahn (CC) 8-1

Singles
1. Hadler (CC) def. Vasconez (SIM) 6-1, 6-2
2. Polidori (CC) def. Robles Solis (SIM) 6-4, 6-4
3. Ong (CC) def. Price (SIM) 6-4, 6-0
4. Penas-Hull (CC) def. Humble (SIM) 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
5. Love (SIM) def. Holyoake (CC) 6-2, 6-4
6. Downard (SIM) def. Krahn (CC) 6-3, 6-4

Simpson 6, Wisconsin-Stevens Point 3

Doubles
1. Steven Benoy/Diego Mosquera (CC) def. Grant Love /Javier Robles (SIM) 8-1
2. Caleb Vasconez/Aaron Price (SIM) def. Hayden Schieier/Connor Paullin (CC) 8-6
3. Drake Downard/Ethan Humble (SIM) def. Sam Zapata/Dan Harris (CC) 8-7 (7-2)

Singles
1. Benoy (CC) def. Vasconez (SIM) 6-1, 6-0
2. Mosquera (CC) def. Robles Solis (SIM) 6-7, 6-0, 10-6
3. Price (SIM) def. Schieier (CC) 6-3, 6-1
4. Humble (SIM) def. Paullin (CC) 6-3, 6-2
5. Love (SIM) def. Zapata (CC) 6-0, 6-2
6. Downard (SIM) def. Harris (CC) 6-2, 6-3