WILMINGTON, N.C. – The final match at the Battle at the Beach for the Illinois State men's tennis team went down to the wire, once again, this time against DePaul, as a win by the Blue Demons on court No. 3 in the final contest of the match gave them a narrow 4-3 win over the Redbirds Sunday afternoon in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The doubles point was highly contested, as DePaul jumped out to the early advantage thanks to wins by their no. 1 and no. 3 tandems, capped off by the efforts of Huck and Almeida who won 7-6 at no. 1 to give the early advantage to the Blue Demons.
Prior to the match clincher, DePaul got the first result from no. 3, winning 6-2 over ISU's Dominick Cuchran and Dominic Anderson. However, the duo of Tin Ostro and Emiliano Gonzales picked up a 6-3 win at no. 2 to force the eventual match-decider at no. 1.
As the action moved to singles, the sides went back-and-forth as Illinois State picked up the first two results, as Nam Pham took home a 6-3, 6-0 win at no. 1 before Arvid Hjlate continued the winning ways with a 6-3, 6-2 result at no. 2.
Then, DePaul gathered two straight wins to retake the advantage (3-2) after Almeida took down Adrian Dibildox at no. 5 by a final of 6-4, 7-5. The Blue Demons saw Iaquinto retake the lead with a 6-2, 7-6 win over ISU's Melker Isaksson.
Gonzales would tie the match at 3-3 after he mustered a 6-4, 7-5 win at no. 6 as the Sunday matinee would come down to action from no. 3 singles. It would be Tomas Valencia of ISU versus DePaul's Krivokapic to decide the match. In the lone match of the day to take three sets, Krivokapic willed his way to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win to give DePaul the win and move the Blue Demons to 9-10 this season while ISU drops to 6-11 in the spring.
The Redbirds are on the road once more next weekend, as they head to Nebraska to face the Creighton Bluejays Friday before meeting up in Summit League play against Omaha on Saturday.
FINAL SCORE: DePaul (4), Illinois State (3)
Doubles:
No. 1 Leon Huck/Pablo Torres Almeida (DEP) def. Arvid Hjalte/Adrian Dibildox (ILS) 7-6
No. 2 Emiliano Gonzales/Tin Ostro (ILS) def. Aleksa Krivokapic/Jona Gitschel (DEP) 6-3  Â
No. 3 Shourya Verma/Sven Moser (DEP) def. Dominick Cuchran/Dominic Anderson (ILS) 6-2
Singles:
No. 1 Nam Pham (ILS) def. Leon Huck (DEP) 6-3, 6-0
No. 2 Arvid Hjalte (ILS) def. Shourya Verma (DEP) 6-3, 6-2
No. 3 Aleksa Krivokapic (DEP) def. Tomas Valencia (ILS) 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
No. 4 Matteo Iaquinto (DEP) def. Melker Isaksson (ILS) 6-2, 7-6
No. 5 Pablo Torres Almeida (DEP) def. Adrian Dibildox (ILS) 6-4, 7-5
No. 6 Emiliano Gonzales (ILS) def. Sven Moser (DEP) 6-4, 7-5
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