Men’s Tennis Downed by Nebraska, 7-0

LINCOLN, Neb. – The Creighton men's tennis team dropped a 7-0 decision to Nebraska on Saturday night inside the Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center in Lincoln, Neb.

The loss drops the Bluejays to 0-2 on the young season, while the Cornhuskers improve to 1-0 on year.

"We are disappointed that we did not earn any team points this weekend," said head coach Tom Lilly. " We played two very good teams but just lost too many big points and a few too many close sets. Hopefully this strong competition has made us tougher and better heading into next weekend at North Dakota. Credit to Nebraska for playing a strong team match throughout the entire lineup."

The duo of Matthew Lanahan and Alejandro Gandini earned a hard fought 7-6 (7-3) tie-breaking victory at the top doubles position, but only after the Cornhuskers claimed 6-3 and 6-1 wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 slots to take an early 1-0 advantage.

Nebraska continued to control the match throughout singles play as Creighton fell in each of the six singles matches. Freshman Kirtan Patel and junior Shin Inoue delivered the strongest performances for the Bluejays, forcing their opponents to three sets.

Patel dropped his opening set to Nebraska's William Gleason, 6-3, before capturing a 7-5 victory in set number two. Set three saw Patel hold leads of 9-8 and 10-9, before Gleason rallied for a 13-11 triumph at the No. 5 singles slot.

After dropping the first set 6-2, Inoue battled back to earn a 7-6 (7-5) tiebreaker win in set two to force a decisive third set. Nebraska's Rudi Christiansen however, responded in set three with a dominating 10-1 win at the No. 4 singles position.

The Bluejays return to action on Friday, January 27 when they travel to North Dakota to take on the Fighting Hawks at 5:00 p.m.

Nebraska 7, Creighton 0
Jan 21, 2023 at Lincoln, Neb. (Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center)

Singles competition

1. #75 Roni Hietaranta (NU) def. Casey Ross (CU) 6-3, 6-3

2. Shunya Maruyama (NU) def. Alejandro Gandini (CU) 6-1, 6-0

3. Leo Linquet (NU) def. Matthew Lanahan (CU) 6-2, 6-0

4. Rudi Christiansen (NU) def. Shin Inoue (CU) 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 10-1

5. William Gleason (NU) def. Kirtan Patel (CU) 6-3, 5-7, 13-11

6. Lars Johann (NU) def. Ricky Rubio (CU) 6-0, 6-4

Doubles competition

1. Alejandro Gandini/Matthew Lanahan (CU) def. Nic Wiedenhorn/William Gleason (NU) 7-6 (6-3)

2. Roni Hietaranta/Shunya Maruyama (NU) def. Zachary Kuo/Casey Ross (CU) 6-3

3. Lars Johann/Leo Linquet (NU) def. Shin Inoue/Ricky Rubio (CU) 6-1

Match Notes

Creighton 0-2

Nebraska 1-0

Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (3,2,6,1,5,4)

T-3:04

Next Event

Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Alejandro Gandini

Shin Inoue

Zachary Kuo

Matthew Lanahan

Kirtan Patel

Casey Ross

Ricky Rubio