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Cobbers and Knights Put on College Tennis Showcase; Concordia Falls 6-3. 
MOORHEAD-- If a stranger happened to be passing by the Jake Christiansen Athletic Complex tennis courts on Saturday and had no knowledge of college tennis, that person would have walked away from the tension-filled match between Concordia and Carleton a huge collegiate tennis fan.

The Cobbers and regionally-ranked Knights staged a gritty, three-hour match that came down to the final two singles matches of the day. 

Trailing 2-1 after the doubles competition, Concordia needed to win four of the singles matches to claim the victory and have a chance at securing a place in the top three of the conference. 

The Cobbers received wins at the #1 and #2 singles spots from Jake Thomas and Jordy Kamerling but fell in the #3 and #6 spots. Needing to win both of the remaining matches. Concordia's William Wischer and Paul Tuchscherer and Carleton's Andrew Tulloch and Drew Piston put on displays that would have been right at home on Centre Court at Wimbledon. 

At the #4 singles slot, Tulloch and Wischer battled through two sets that both went to the tie-breaker. Chasing down balls from both sides of the court, Tulloch overcame the groundstrokes of Wischer to win 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3).

In the most dramatic match of the day, Piston rallied from being pummeled in the opening set 6-1 and forced a tie-breaker in the second set. Piston used his momentum to win 7-5 in the tie-breaker and then took control in the super set by winning 10-3. The loss snapped a 10-match winning streak for Tuchscherer. He is now 11-3 on the year and falls for only the second time in conference play.

Thomas and Kamerling had outstanding days for Concordia. The pair combined to pick up a much-needed win in doubles play, and then separately earned two wins in the singles competition. Thomas picked apart William Holmes of Carleton with precision-like accuracy in the #1 singles match and won in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, while Kamerling routinely bombed away baseline winners in the #2 singles match to cruise to a 6-1, 6-4 win over Peter Varnum.

The loss slides Concordia's conference record to 5-3, while Carleton improves to 8-1 in the MIAC. Both teams are now 9-5 on the year. 

The Cobbers will finish off the regular season by hosting St. John's on Sunday, April 24 at 1:00pm at the Jake Christiansen Athletic Complex. The match will decide the #4 seed for the conference tournament. Both teams enter the match with a 5-3 conference mark. The Johnnies were beaten by St. Thomas on Saturday 5-4. 
 

Concordia Men's Tennis vs Carleton (April 23, 2005)
April 23, 2005 Carleton at Concordia

Carleton 6 at Concordia Men's Tennis 3
Doubles competition
No. 1: Jake Thomas/Jordy Kamerling (CC) def. William Holmes/Andrew Tulloch (Carl), 8-5
No. 2: Drew Piston/Jake Hoppe (Carl) def. Ryan Smith/Paul Tuchscherer (CC), 8-4
No. 3: Peter Varnum/Kartheek Koneru (Carl) def. William Wischer/Eric Torres (CC), 8-5

Singles competition
No. 1: Jake Thomas (CC) def. William Holmes (Carl), 6-2, 6-2
No. 2: Jordy Kamerling (CC) def. Peter Varnum (Carl), 6-1, 6-4
No. 3: Kartheek Koneru (Carl) def. Ryan Smith (CC), 6-3, 6-0
No. 4: Andrew Tulloch (Carl) def. William Wischer (CC), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3)
No. 5: Drew Piston (Carl) def. Paul Tuchscherer (CC), 1-6, 7-6 (5), 10-3 
No. 6: Jake Hoppe (Carl) def. Eric Torres (CC), 6-2, 6-1

Match Notes
Concordia College 9-5, 5-3 MIAC
Carletobn College 9-5, 8-1 MIAC