LAKEWOOD, Calif.—The Gonzaga University men's tennis picked up its sixth win of the season, returning its win percentage to .667 with a 5-2 win over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Monday in a neutral site contest at Lakewood Tennis Center in Lakewood, Calif.

For the fifth straight time, Gonzaga started the match by winning the doubles point. Sergio Chip and Nick Kamisar began the doubles contest with a 6-3 win at No. 2 doubles, beating Marten Jonsson and Nico Kuehn for their third win as a doubles pair.

The other two pairs contests were much closer. Both remaining matches needed extra tennis of some sort, but Hayden Smith and Vladimir Mijatovic needed just one extra game to get past SIUE's Stephen Washuta and Nicolas Vincent 7-5 at No. 1 singles. With the win, the two moved to 6-0 in dual play and remain the team's only doubles pair undefeated in the spring season.

On court three, SIUE avoided the doubles sweep when Patrick Gaffigan and Matthew Hutchinson needed a tiebreak to get past Alvaro Nazal and Joey Brandt. The score of that match was 7-6 (8).

Nazal bounced back from the tight doubles loss in tremendous fashion. The Santiago, Chile, native swept through Vincent in the first set of their No. 1 singles contest and won six of eight games in the set for a 6-0, 6-2 win. Nazal picked up his fifth dual win of the season, and he moved to 19 total when including the fall tournaments.

Gonzaga got two more two-set victories from Smith and Mijatovic, but both of those matches were much closer than the one atop the lineup. At No. 3 singles, Smith beat Jacob Perkins by a break in the first set but was forced into an extra game in the second. The Australian closed out the second with a game victory, however, and won the match 6-4, 7-5. He leads all Zags with six seven wins in dual play, one ahead of Mijatovic, who won on court four Monday. Mijatovic win his first set over Kuehn 6-3 but was forced into a second set tiebreak. He won the tiebreak by two points to hang on for the 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory.

Also picking up a singles win Monday, Chip played an exciting three-setter against Gaffigan at No. 5 singles. The senior won the first set 6-2, but Gaffigan responded with a 2-6 win the second to force a deciding third set. That frame was well-fought and ended in a tiebreak, which Chip won for the 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (1) victory. He also has six singles wins on the dual season.

The Cougars won two singles matches on the day as Jonsson defeated Kamsair 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles and Washuta beat Vicente Varas 6-4, 6-4 at No. 6 singles.

With the win, Gonzaga advances to 6-3 on the dual season. The squad remains in the Los Angeles area for one more match, anther neutral-site contest Wednesday, March 11 at 9:30 a.m. This time the Zags will face Youngstown State at Orange County College in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Gonzaga 5, SIUE 2
Mar 09, 2015 at Lakewood, Calif.