Men’s tennis off to best start since 1995

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Rachel Rudisill

Junior Orel Ovil backhands the ball during his match against Purdue on Jan. 23. Ovil won his singles match against Milledge Cossu 2-0.

The Wichita State men’s tennis team is having their best start in 26 years after wins against Oral Roberts, Saint Louis and Purdue last weekend. 

“All three doubles teams and all six singles guys competed really hard,” head coach Danny Bryan said in a statement. “I know we can play a lot better than that, but for the first weekend, we did pretty well.”

Redshirt junior Orel Ovil went 3-0 this weekend in singles matches and was named AAC player of the week. 

Ovil won his first match at No. 1 6-2, 6-2 against SLU. He finished out the day with a win against ORU  7-5 at No. 2. Ovil then went on to earn his third win of the weekend on Sunday against Purdue by defeating his opponent 6-1. 

“Orel competed well, as always,” Bryan said. “This was definitely a match that he can get a lot of confidence from and if Orel has confidence, he’s going to be really tough to beat.”

In doubles, sophomore Luka Mrsic and redshirt junior Nicolas Acevedo beat SLU 6-2 in their match, and got another win against ORU on Sunday by defeating them on Sunday 6-2. Mrsic earned another victory but this time at No. 4 singles against Purdue with a final score of 6-3,6-3.  

Acevedo also got his first win of his career at No. 1 singles. However, he dropped his first set in the match 3-6. He then made a comeback in sets two and three with a score of 6-0, and 6-3. 

“Nico (Acevedo) got into the first set and wasn’t timing the ball well and wasn’t having much confidence, but he stuck with it and the way he competed and stayed the same whether he won or lost a point helped him get more confidence, find timing and play better as the match went on,” Bryan said. “I’m really proud of him for his effort mentally to stick with it and get that third-set win.”

The Shockers will begin conference play in Fort Worth Texas against Tulsa on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 11 a.m.