April 17, 2009

Complete Results

Romeoville, Ill. - It has been six years in the making, but the Lewis University men's tennis team has qualified for the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament for the first time since 2003 by virtue of their 5-4 victory over Quincy at the Lewis Tennis Courts on Friday afternoon.

For much of the season, Lewis had depended on its two redshirt freshmen Uno Lapimaa (Talinn, Estonia/Tallina Audentese) and Tonis Irdoja (Tallin, Estonia/Rocca Al Mare) and the duo came through again, each claiming two wins against the Hawks.

It was a senior, however, that came through for the Flyers on `Senior Day', as Ben Karas (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) claimed a pair of victories himself. Karas teamed with redshirt freshman Balazs Somogyi (Budapest, Hungary/Kvassay Jeno Muszaki) for the gritty 9-8 win at No. 2 doubles. He would later clinch the match with the 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 triumph at No. 4 singles over Quincy's Baxter Grace.

"This was an extremely hard fought win against a good Quincy team," Lewis assistant coach Slavko Radman said. "We talked the whole week about playing to win during crucial moments of the match."

With the victory, Lewis improves to 4-15 on the season and 2-6 in GLVC action, while the visiting Hawks drop to 3-14 on the campaign and 0-8 in conference play.

The Flyers return to action on Saturday morning, as they welcome Missouri-St. Louis to the Lewis Tennis Courts for a 10 a.m. first serve.

A Catholic University sponsored by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, Lewis offers nearly 80 undergraduate majors and programs of study, accelerated degree completion options for working adults, various aviation programs and 22 graduate programs in nine fields. The mid-sized university is being honored for the fifth consecutive year by The Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report. For more information please visit www.lewisu.edu.

##LEWIS##