Surprise, Ariz. – The 6th-ranked Concordia men's tennis team cruised to a 5-1 victory over No. 24 Northwest Missouri State in the NCAA Round of 16 match on Wednesday morning. The win for the Clippers advances them to the NCAA Quarterfinal match after a year absence last season.
Concordia would take a 2-1 advantage after doubles play with senior's David Tisserand (Lyon, France) and Andreas Lindell (Helsingborg, Sweden) beginning the match with an 8-3 victory at No. 3 doubles over Dylan Bernatzky and Rafael Bugiga.
Sophomore's Tomasz Olfans (Opole, Poland) and Benas Majauskas (Vilnius, Lithuania) would follow shortly thereafter with an 8-5 win against Guilherme Narducci and Alvaro Riveros in the No. 2 match to give the Clippers a 2-0 advantage.
Senior Andrey Boldarev (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) and junior Daniele Piludu (Cagliari, Italy) would have a difficult battle in their No. 1 match against Lluis Altimires and Sergio De Vilchez. The Bearcats' duo would edge out an 8-5 victory to prevent a sweep by Concordia.
Singles play would be controlled by the Clippers as Piludu began with a dominating 6-0, 6-0 win in his No. 2 match against Bugiga to give the Clippers a 3-1 lead. Majauskas would also shutout his opponent 6-0, 6-0 in his No. 5 match against Narducci as Concordia was now one singles victory away from advancing to the next round.
Tisserand's 6-3, 6-1 victory over Riveros in the No. 4 match would secure the 5-1 win for the Clippers. Boldarev, Olfans, and Lindell were all in the middle of their matches for Concordia which would go unfinished.
The Clippers (21-2, 6-0 CACC) will continue their quest for a national championship tomorrow morning at 11am EST. Concordia will take on No. 9 Lander University who recently won 5-0 in their Round of 16 match this morning against No. 16 Cameron University. Fans can follow the action via live stats from Surprise, Ariz. with the link available on the men's tennis schedule on ConcordiaClippers.com.