Lyssa Beyer

The men’s tennis team had a successful day Sunday, dominating over Ripon College and Macalester College (Minn.). The Blugolds swept both matches 9-0 at the McPhee indoor courts in the Ade Olson Additon.

“The home court gave us the advantage,” sophomore Phil Loprinzi said. “We knew the turf pretty well.”

The Blugolds are now 5-1 on the season, their only loss coming from St. Cloud (Minn.).St. Cloud is an NCAA Div. II opponent.

Loprinzi said 5-1 is where the team was hoping to be at this point in the season.

Eau Claire took on Ripon first. Freshmen Lars Olson and Mike Olson played at the No. 5 and No. 6 singles spots, respectively. Both did not give up a point to their opponents, winning each match 6-0. Lars Olson also had success in doubles play, when he and sophomore Kevin Fawcett beat their opponents by the largest margin of the day, 8-1 in the No. 2 slot.

In No. 1 singles, junior Steven Lantz beat his opponent 6-1 and 6-2. In No. 2 singles, Fawcett beat his opponent 6-2, 6-1, while Loprinzi beat his opponent 6-1 and 6-2 as well. Senior Erik Brandner also beat his opponent 6-1 and 6-3.

Ripon and Macalester played each other next, with Macalester coming away with a 7-2 victory.

The Blugolds had success over Macalester as well, but needed two tiebreakers to do it. At the No. 3 singles slot, Brandner won in sets of 4-6, 6-3 and 10-8. Freshman Aaron Johnson ran into a similar situation, and came away with the victory in sets of 6-3, 4-6 and 10-8. The match was the first action the freshman has seen this season.

Fawcett was not available to play in the meet against Macalester, moving Laprinzi, Brandner and Lars Olson up a spot, and bringing in Johnson and freshman Brett Burleigh.

This meet was the first of the season for Macalester, and the second for Ripon.

The Blugolds will head to Decorah, Iowa this weekend for three matches, one on Friday and two on Saturday. On Friday they will face off against Cornell College (Iowa). On Saturday they will take on Luther College (Iowa) and Loras College (Iowa).

“We’re just going to try and get used to the courts,” Loprinzi said. “We’re going to have some good competition.”