Roo tennis headed for Summit Championships

By: Dan Stroud

Posted: 4/14/08

Knocking off Centenary College (CC) and Indian University Purdue University-Fort Wayne (IPFW) 4-0 on successive days propelled the UMKC Men's Tennis team into the Summit League Championships at the end of the month.

The Kangaroos will be the No. 3 seed in the four team field that will square off on April 25 in Fort Wayne, Ind. The squad will take on either Western Illinois University or Oral Roberts University in their initial match of the championships.

Playing at the Western Varsity Courts Friday afternoon in Galesberg, Ill., Centenary and UMKC did not participate in doubles competition due to severely cold weather. The impetus for victory was placed in the hands of the UMKC individual players.

Sophomores Patrick Smith, Dennis Schwarz, Erwin Quintanilla and freshman Serge Ristivojevic each won their matches which culminated in the shutout victory.

The results were much the same on Saturday morning though the matches were played indoors at the Lakeside Raquet Club in Galesburg. Snow fall forced the UMKC and IPFW teams off the Western Varsity Courts.

Once again Ristivojevic, Smith, Schwarz and Quintanilla dominated their individual matches and doubles play was cancelled due to the bad weather. Freshmen Nick Patoni and Nick Mader each competed but were not required to finish after the top seeds on the squad had completed their wins.

dstroud@unews.com