GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — On a sun-splashed Sunday afternoon at the Elliott Tennis Center, the Colorado Mesa men's tennis team opened PacWest Conference play with a pair of duals against Hawai'i Hilo, splitting the duals.
The Vulcans played four matches on their long road trip to Colorado over the weekend, losing a pair of duals at MSU Denver before traveling over the Rocky Mountains to face the No. 27 Mavericks, who improved to 7-6 with the split.
Hawai'i Hilo claimed the first dual 4-3, but the Mavs rebounded with a 4-2 victory in the second, with the teams playing to clinch.
A shuffle in the middle of the singles lineup paid off, with both Philemon Jabin and Romain Payan winning their second match to key the Mavericks' victory after both lost their first match of the day.
Payan started off the singles competition by winning 6-0, 6-3 at No. 4 over Agustin Gentile, and Jabin clinched the dual with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 3 against Sergi Tintore after flipping positions from the early dual.
Henry Scheck and William Leschig won their No. 1 doubles match 6-1 in the second dual and Payan and Jamison Phingston took a 6-3 victory at No. 3 to stake the Mavericks to a 1-0 lead.
Emil Hultman's 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 5 singles put CMU up 3-0 before the Vulcans won at No. 1 and No. 6. Jabin put the match away with his victory. Scheck was up 6-4, 5-4 at No. 2 when the match ended one game shy of Scheck winning his 10th singles match of the season.
In the opening dual, the Mavericks took an early 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point, and the teams were even at 3-3 with the final match on the court. The Vulcans' Tintore rallied for a 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-4 clinching victory over Payan at No. 3 singles.
Colorado Mesa won the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches, with Scheck and Leschig fighting back for a 7-6 (7-5) victory at No. 2. The Mavericks were down 5-4 and 6-5, but broke the Vulcans' serve both times to force the tiebreaker and win the crucial doubles point. Payan and Pfingston won 6-2 at No. 3.
Hultman claimed 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 5 singles, his 10th singles win of the season, and Diogo Manzano won 6-3, 6-2 at No. 6.
After a few days off, the Mavericks head to California for a busy spring break trip from March 15-20, with six PacWest matches in six days. They return home to face MSU Denver and Colorado College in early April.
