March 3, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team dominated the Northern Illinois squad, which is 4-6 on the season, as they blanked them for an 8-0 victory. The matches were played at home on the Lafayette Sports Center, Friday afternoon, along with the women's tennis team. The Boilers play had many highlights, in particular the play of senior Evan Hays and sophomore Laith Al-Agba.
"Senior Evan Hays is one of those players who helps the team out every day in practice and with preparing the team for matches," Purdue head coach Tim Madden said. "It is tough to always be the next guy in line to play, but today we inserted him in the singles and doubles lineup and Evan came through for the team. The whole team enjoyed watching Evan play, it was a plus for both him and the team. Evan was a part of our win today, and I am overjoyed with his performance."
In singles matches, at the No. 1 position, junior Jason Marshall easily won 6-0, 6-2 over Brent Sharski of Northern Illinois. Riding the highs of a recent 8-0 win streak was freshman Andrew Wakefield. He battled to win 6-1, 7-5 over Patrik Molin. At No. 3 singles, another freshman, Carl McCafferty, won 6-4, 6-3 over his Northern Illinois competitor, Mattias Ottermark. A third freshman, Scott Mayer, played at No. 4 singles and he won easily over Radovan Zivkovic with a 6-0, 6-1 decision. Laith Al-Agba, of Bremerton, Wash., blanked his opponent, Nick Gryfakis with a 6-0, 6-0 significant victory. Senior Evan Hays also won his match 6-3, 6-3 for a victory over Tim Freesen.
"Sophomore Laith Al-Agba improved today, as he was struggling in the wins and losses category lately," Madden said. "He told me after his match how good it felt to win again. Laith could have fallen into a slump, but he played with his chin up and has a victory to show for his effort."
To start things off in the doubles matches, Al-Agba teamed up with Mayer to get the win over Northern Illinois No. 1 doubles team of Sitarski and Molin with an 8-5 victory. At the No. 2 doubles spot, Wakefield of Nottingham, England and McCafferty to get the decisive victory 8-3 over Ottermark and Gryfakis of Northern Illinois. Picking up his second point for the team, Hays played with sophomore Derek Miller against Zivkovic and Freesen and won with an 8-3 victory.
"There was no letdown today in our matches against Northern Illinois," Madden said. "In our first weekend of competition this year, we lost two matches against Western Michigan and Ball State. If I look back on our season, those two losses gave us a boost to get back on the road to improvement. Last weekend, Notre Dame put us in our place after our big win over IU and today our goal was to get back on top of our game. Everyone was able to get it going, and we didn't take lightly this meeting with Northern Illinois. We worked to prove ourselves all week, which helped us in our preparation for today and will carry us into our upcoming matches."
The Purdue men's tennis team will be at home again on March 10 against the tennis team of Louisville. The matches will begin at ten in the morning at the Lafayette Sports Center.
Purdue 8, Northern Illinois 0
Singles
No. 1 Jason Marshall (PU) def. Brent Sitarski (NI) 6-0, 6-2
No. 2 Andrew Wakefield (PU) def. Patrik Molin (NI) 6-1, 7-5
No. 3 Carl McCafferty (PU) def. Mattias Ottermark (NI) 6-4, 6-3
No. 4 Scott Mayer (PU) def. Radovan Zivkovic (NI) 6-0, 6-1
No. 5 Laith Al-Agba (PU) def. Nick Gryfakis (NI) 6-0, 6-0
No. 6 Evan Hays (PU) def. Tim Freesen (NI) 6-3, 6-3
Doubles
No. 1 Al-Agba/Mayer (PU) def. Sitarski/Molin (NI) 8-5
No. 2 Wakefield/McCafferty (PU) def. Ottermark/Gryfakis (NI) 8-3
No. 3 Hays/Derek Miller (PU) def. Zivkovic/Freesen (NI) 8-3