WICHITA, Kan. – The Wichita State men's tennis team is off to its best start since 1995 after taking down Purdue 6-1 on Sunday.
 
"All three doubles teams and all six singles guys competed really hard," head coach Danny Bryan said. "I know we can play a lot better than that, but for the first weekend, we did pretty well."
 
The Shockers went 2-1 in doubles to capture the doubles point. Luka Mrsic won by retirement at No. 4 singles and Kristof Minarik claimed victory at No. 3 in straight sets. At court two, Orel Ovil picked up his third win of the weekend to clinch the match for Wichita State, defeating his opponent 6-1 in set one and winning the tiebreak set in set two.
 
"Orel competed well, as always," Bryan said. "This was definitely a match that he can get a lot of confidence from and if Orel has confidence, he's going to be really tough to beat."
 
At No. 6, Alex Richards handled his opponent 6-1, 6-4 and on court one, Nicolas Acevedo battled back after dropping the first set to earn his first No. 1 singles win of his career. Ray Lo fell at No. 5 singles after losing the 10-point tiebreaker.
 
"Nico got into the first set and wasn't timing the ball well and wasn't having much confidence, but he stuck with it and the way he competed and stayed the same whether he won or lost a point helped him get more confidence, find timing and play better as the match went on," Bryan said. "I'm really proud of him for his effort mentally to stick with it and get that third-set win."
 
Wichita State 6, Purdue 1
 
Singles competition
1. Nicolas Acevedo (WSU) def. Athell Bennett (PU) 3-6, 6-0, 6-3
2. Orel Ovil (WSU) def. Milledge Cossu (PU) 6-1, 7-6 (7-3)
3. Kristof Minarik (WSU) def. Tomascz Dudek (PU) 6-3, 6-2
4. Luka Mrsic (WSU) def. Gabriele Brancatelli (PU) 6-3, 3-3, retired
5. Rohan Sachdev (PU) def. Ray Lo (WSU) 7-5, 4-6, 10-5
6. Alex Richards (WSU) def. Piotr Galus (PU) 6-1, 6-4
 
Doubles competition
1. Nicolas Acevedo/Luka Mrsic (WSU) def. Athell Bennett/Milledge Cossu (PU) 7-5
2. Michal Wozniak/Piotr Galus (PU) def. Jackie Lin/Orel Ovil (WSU) 6-4
3. Alex Richards/Kristof Minarik (WSU) def. Gabriele Brancatelli/Tomascz Dudek (PU) 6-0
 
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (4,3,2,6,1,5)