ORU closes door on Kangaroo tennis season

By: Nick Wells

Posted: 4/28/08

The UMKC men's tennis team traveled Friday, April 25 to Fort Wayne, Ind., for their fourth straight and 13th overall appearance in the League Championships. The Roo effort was stymied though 4-1, by the reigning conference champions, the Oral Roberts University (ORU) Golden Eagles.

"We started out really strong, winning the doubles match, but we could not carry it over into singles play," said head tennis coach Kendell Hale. "Our number one and two players lost a lot easier than the first time we played, but our three and four guys stepped up like they have all season and came through again."

.The Kangaroos came out swinging, as Australia native, freshman Serge Ristivojevic and sophomore Patrick Smith defeated ORU's Alex Kotsuik and Alex Dargel 8-5 in doubles action. UMKC sophomores Erwin Quintanilla and Dennis Schwarz followed up with an 8-5 doubles victory of their own, to secure the first and only UMKC point.

UMKC has looked for its first win since the 2000-01 season in which they defeated Valpo to reach the finals, but ORU would not allow that to happen.

The Golden Eagles would soar in this one, as they won all four singles matches, although Schwarz was leading his match before it was called, and Quintanilla was in a third set when his match was called.

The usually consistent Ristivojevic and Smith were both eliminated. Ristivojevic lost in straight sets, 6-1 and 6-0, while Smith lost 6-1, 6-4.

"I just want to give credit to the top four, because they carried our team all year," Hale said.

nwells@unews.com