Men's Tennis Travels to Cleveland for a Pair of Matches with the Vikings

Saturday, March 20

Cleveland, Ohio

4 PM

Xavier University

Cleveland State

Men's Tennis Travels to Cleveland for a Pair of Matches with the Vikings

03.19.21 | Men's Tennis

Musketeers and CSU face off on Saturday at 4 PM, return Sunday at noon

By: Hayley Schletker, Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI – Xavier men's tennis travels to Cleveland this weekend to face Cleveland State for a pair of matches, starting Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and wrapping up Sunday, starting at noon.

CLEVELAND STATE

The Vikings are 5-4 on the season, after winning five of the last six, including wins over Butler, Buffalo, Toledo, and a pair of wins over St. Bonaventure.
CSU went 6-6 in 2020 before the season was canceled.
Xavier faced the Vikings last season, falling 6-1. Aaron Thompson picked up the win in the No. 6 singles spot
In their last complete season, the Vikings won the Horizon League Tournament Championship for a second-straight season to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. CSU fell to Ohio State in the first round of the tournament.
Xavier has faced Cleveland State 15 times in program history with a 6-8 record in matches with results recorded.

LAST TIME OUT

Xavier fell, 7-0, to Dayton last Friday.
Dayton took the doubles point with a 6-2 win in the No. 1 spot over Brett Winters and Matthew Graft, and a 6-2 win over Srdan Pejic and Shashank Reddy in the No. 2 spot. Aaron Thompson and Jan Vrba were leading in the No. 3 spot, 5-3, when the point was decided.
The Flyers picked up four singles points in two sets, taking the No.1 spot, 6-1, 6-2, against Brett Winters, and the No.2 spot, 6-2, 6-3, against Srdan Pejic.
In the No. 3 spot, the Flyers picked up the win over Matthew Graft, 6-3, 6-3, and in the No. 5 spot, Dayton took a 6-2, 6-3 win over Shashank Reddy.
The final two singles courts were decided in three sets, with Aaron Thompson, playing on the No. 3 court, falling 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Jan Vrba falling 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (10-3) in No. 6 singles.

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.