Creighton University
Western Illinois
Men's Tennis Gives Lilly 250th Career Win; Tops Western Illinois 6-1
2/27/2010 8:16:00 PM | Men's Tennis
OMAHA, Neb. - The Creighton men complemented the women's win on Saturday night, as they gave head coach Tom Lilly his 250th career win after a 6-1 thumping of Western Illinois at the Hanscom Tennis Center.
Lilly, in his 12th season at the helm of CU Tennis, came into the evening with 248 combined men's and women's victories. After the women defeated Western Illinois 7-0 earlier in the evening, the Jays raced out to four straight wins to clinch the milestone win.
The Jays swept all three doubles match to grab the 1-0 lead. Billy Paluch and J.T. Christian topped Francisco Ortiz and Jeff Cote at No. 1, 8-3, Gabe Nagy and Kyle Obermeier followed with a hard-fought, 9-8 victory over Patrick Hammers and James McGuire at No. 2 and Ryan Norman and Connor Macey recorded an 8-4 victory over Mandela Shepard and Dino Ilecic at No. 3.
Singles play started out with the Jays winning the first five matches. Christian (No. 2), Obermeier (No. 4) and McAvoy (No. 5), all won in straight sets, while Nagy went needed a third set in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Shepard at No. 3.
Paluch earned the final Jay point with another three-set victory at No. 1 over Cote, 6-4, 6-7 and 7-5.
Western's only point of the night, in both men's and women's duals, came courtesy of Alejandro Buceta, who defeated Sean Mathison 6-3 and 7-6.
The Jays will be off until Sunday, March 7, when they begin a series of spring break duals in Orlando, Fla. First match on the trip is against Valparaiso, with a start time yet to be determined.
Players Mentioned
