OLEAN, N.Y. – Playing in its first match in 11 months, the Duquesne men's tennis team downed St. Bonaventure, 5-2, in its season-opener on Sunday afternoon at the St. Bonaventure Fitness Center.

"Overall, the team battled some nerves most likely due to it being the first competition in almost a year," said Duquesne Director of Tennis Vanessa Steiner. "We were extremely proud of how they competed for every point and came together as a team supporting one another. This was a total team effort and win against a strong Bonnies team."

All three double matches were very close. Line one, returning seniors Alex Mascioli and Alejandro Rodriguez-Vidal came out strong, but struggled to maintain their lead and lost a very close match, 6-4.

Lines two and three were made up of all underclassmen and they stepped up! Both matches were respectively close. Line two was Jin Dassanayake & Tamirlan Teberikov. This was their first match playing together and Jin really took control and helped Tam keep his nerves under control in the beginning. Both players controlled the court on their serves and returns and played aggressive doubles; they were able to win, 7-5.

Line 3 was made up of 2 freshmen, Bode Vance and Kaipo Marshall. Also, first match playing together and as expected battled some nerves in the beginning. They were able to get a few easy holds on Kaipo's serve and take control of the match, winning 6-4. We saw bright spots from all three doubles teams and the teamwork they presented on the court was outstanding. 

After earning the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead, the Dukes headed to singles play. We had our work cut out for us in singles play as well. The Dukes played smart, solid tennis and controlled the tempo and pace of each match.

In Line one, Mascioli, was in control from the beginning of his match winning 6-2, 6-3. Line two, Rodriguez-Vidal, had a tougher time going into three sets. He lost a little focus in the second set, allowing his opponent to take the set. Alejandro used the energy from his teammates to regroup and won the third set, 6-0, to clinch the match.

Lines three, four and five were the freshmen and the first matches as Duquesne Dukes for each! They all competed very well and fought hard. Marshall won his match in straight sets. Teberikov and Vance both lost their matches in three sets. In Line six, Dassanayake, dominated his opponent and took care of business.