Sarah Hawbaker
Lindsborg News Record

The Bethany College men's tennis team competed at the NAIA National Tournament in Mobile, Ala. last week, defeating the 19^th seed, Olivet Nazarene 6-3 before falling to Oklahoma Christian 5-0.

In the ONU match the men won two of three doubles points after Marcelo Alecio and Kane Olsen got a win 8-3 win at the number one doubles spot.

Next, Alex Sandri and Shane Huggins captured an 8-3 win also.

In singles James Bragg started the team off with a convincing 6-0, 6-1 win at the number six singles spot.

Head Coach Vic Bateman said that Bragg showed the depth of Bethany's team, saying that Bragg may have been able to defeat anyone in Olivet's top six.

Shane Huggins picked up his second point of the day to help the Swedes to a 4-1 lead. Kane Olsen clinched the win for the Swedes with a 6-0, 6-3 win over a very tough ONU opponent in what were very hot and humid conditions.

"We played well in our first round match against a very good Olivet team and we needed to," said Bateman. "They were a very tough team to get past and I was pleased how we came out and played." Bateman added.

The next day the Swedes took on third-ranked Oklahoma Christan. The Swedes came out fighting, taking Oklahoma Christian's number one doubles, who are the sixth-ranked doubles team in the country, down to the wire.

Bateman said there was only one break in a tightly contested match that saw OC fight off three break points in the final two games for an 8-6 win with some clutch serving to hold off the Swedes.

After falling behind 3-0 following the doubles matches, the Swedes played well in singles but dropped two matches to fall 5-0. During the singles matches, Marcelo Alecio was beating the number one player in the NAIA, Bruno Tiberti, in a first set tiebreaker.

Kane Olsen and Shane Huggins were also locked in tight singles matches when the match was stopped.

Bateman said the tournament was abuzz over Bethany's impressive play at the number one doubles spot, coupled with Alecio's lead over the NAIA's number one player.

"We definitely backed up our top-15 ranking and showed we can compete with anyone in the country at any spot in the lineup," Bateman said.