Men's Tennis Back in Action with a Pair of Matches this Weekend

Friday, February 19

Cincinnati, Ohio

1 PM

Xavier University

Northern Kentucky

Men's Tennis Back in Action with a Pair of Matches this Weekend

02.18.21 | Men's Tennis

Musketeers host NKU on Friday, travel to Youngstown State on Sunday

By: Hayley Schletker, Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI – Xavier men's tennis returns to action this weekend, hosting NKU at Eastern Hills on Friday, Feb. 19 at 1:00 p.m., then traveling to face Youngstown State on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 12:00 p.m.

All season, matches held at Eastern Hills Indoor Tennis Club can be watched at GoXavier.com/MTENLiveStreams.

NORTHERN KENTUCKY

The Norse are 2-0 with wins over Bellarmine and University of Charleston.
NKU was 6-6 last season when competition ceased due to COVID-19.
Xavier topped NKU last season, 4-3, winning the doubles point, then securing the win with wins in the No. 6 spot for Shashank Reddy, the No. 1 spot for Brett Winters and the No. 2 spot for Srdan Pejic.
Xavier has won 21 straight matches against the Norse, dating back to the 1990-91 season.

YOUNGSTOWN STATE

Youngstown State is 0-4 on the season with matches against Northern Illinois, North Dakota, Dayton and Marquette. YSU will also face Toledo on Friday evening.
Youngstown State finished the 2020 season at 3-6 after winning the first three matches of the season.
Xavier is 6-1 against YSU in matches with results in the Xavier record book.
The last match-up occurred in 2016-17, a 5-2 loss for the Musketeers. Xavier had won six-straight matches against Youngstown prior to that.

LAST TIME OUT

Xavier picked up its first win of the season, a 6-1 decision over Bellarmine.
Xavier took the doubles points with wins in the No. 1 spot for Arnaud Restifo and Matthew Graft, 6-2, and the No. 2 spot for Cambell Nakayama and Brett Winters, 6-3. Srdan Pejic and Shashank Reddy were leading 5-3 when the point was decided.
In singles action, the Musketeers picked up a pair of points in two-set matches, with Aaron Thompson taking the No. 6 spot, 6-4, 6-3, and Matthew Graft taking the No. 4 spot, 6-3, 7-5.
Xavier also picked up three three-set wins in singles. Brett Winters won the No. 1 spot, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 and Shashank Reddy came back to win the No. 5 spot after falling in the first set, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Srdan Pejic earned the point in the No. 2 spot, 5-7, 7-5, 10-8.
Bellarmine's point came from the No. 3 spot, a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win over Cambell Nakayama.

THE TEAM: RETURNERS

Xavier returns eight from the 2020 season, with all getting action in dual play.
Brett Winters collected a team-leading 11 singles wins as well as eight doubles wins overall before the season was canceled in mid-March due to COVID-19. He had a 7-8 record in dual play, playing in the No. 1 spot. Winters went 5-8 in doubles play during the dual season, playing in the No. 1 spot...Partnered with Srdan Pejic, had a record of 3-6 and had a record of 2-2 with Matthew Graft.
Srdan Pejic had a team-leading 11 singles and 11 doubles wins overall before dual season was canceled in mid March due to COVID-19. Pejic went 6-8 in doubles during duals, primarily playing in the No. 1 spot with Brett Winters, where the pair went 3-6.
Matthew Graft collected six singles wins and seven doubles wins overall in 2020. He went 3-6 in singles during tournament play in the fall and picked up three singles wins in dual action, all in the No. 3 spot. Graft was 6-6 in doubles action in duals, going 4-4 playing No. 2 and No. 3 with Shashank Reddy and 2-2 in the No. 1 spot with Brett Winters.
Shashank Reddy collected six singles wins and nine doubles wins overall in 2020. He had a 4-8 record in singles during duals, playing primarily in the No. 4 spot where he had a 3-5 record. Reddy went 9-9 overall in doubles, including a 7-6 mark in dual play. He went 4-4 partnered with Matthew Graft, playing the No. 2 spot (1-2) and No. 3 spot (3-2) and also partnered with Srdan Pejic to go 3-2, playing No. 2s (0-2) and No. 3s (3-0).
Jan Vrba collected seven singles wins and six doubles wins in 2020. He had a 7-7 overall record in singles, including a 6-3 mark in tournament play in the fall. He went 1-4 in singles during dual play, playing primarily in the No. 4 spot (0-3) but also in the No. 3 spot (1-0) and the No. 5 spot (0-1). Vrba went 6-11 in doubles play, with a 2-8 record in dual matches. Partnered with Michael Lee, the pair went 1-7 in the No. 2 spot and 1-1 in the No. 3 spot.
Aaron Thompson collected eight singles wins and two doubles wins overall in 2020. He went 5-8 in singles during dual action, playing primarily in the No. 5 spot (2-7) but also playing No. 4 (2-1) and No. 6 (1-0). Thompson went 2-4 overall in doubles, with a 2-3 mark in the fall.
Dominic Macaluso picked up six singles wins and two doubles wins overall in 2020. He had a 4-2 record in singles play during the fall tournament season and went 2-2 in the No. 6 singles spot during duals. Macaluso went 1-0 in doubles during the spring, playing in the No. 3 spot with Jake Zipoli.
Jake Zipoli collected six singles wins and three doubles wins overall in 2020. He had a 4-2 singles record in tournament play during Fall 2019 and went 2-0 in dual singles. Zipoli also finished 3-3 overall record in doubles, going 2-3 in tournament play, partnered with Macaluso as well as Shashank Reddy.

THE TEAM: NEWCOMERS

Xavier added a pair of freshmen to the roster, Caden Kammerer and Pascal Mosberger.
Kammerer, from Longmont, Colorado, was a four-star recruit, as rated by TennisRecruiting.net, and was ranked as high as 111 in the site's rankings. During his prep career, Kammerer earned a Universal Tennis Rating of 11.6.
Mosberger, from Zurich, Switzerland, ranked as high as 105 in the Swiss Men's National Rankings and 2,256 in the ITF Men's World Rankings with a highest Universal Tennis Rating of 11.95 so far in his career.
Xavier also added two transfers, Arnaud Restifo and Cambell Nakayama.
Restifo joined Xavier as a grad transfer after spending three seasons at San Diego State, collecting 34 singles wins during his time there. He started his Aztec career with an All-Mountain West Conference Singles season, going 14-23 overall. As a junior he posted a in 14-16 mark in singles and an 11-9 mark in doubles play. He finished last season's abbreviated season at 6-6 in singles play.
Nakayama transferred from Cal Poly, where he spent two seasons. He finished the shortened dual season at 3-2 in singles, playing primarily in the No. 5 and 6 spots in 2020. In 2019, he finished the spring season with a 1-4 record in singles dual matches all from the No. 6 position.