Cheney, Wash. - The Eastern Washington University men's tennis team opened its dual match schedule this weekend, on Saturday, Jan. 23, and earned a dominant victory against visiting Whitworth, 7-0, and a another win in a close battle with Seattle University, 4-3.

The Eagles easily handled the Pirates for the opening match of the day, beating Whitworth 7-0, with no losses in the singles portion and only one set lost in the doubles competition. In the doubles competition the combo of junior Robert Dula and freshman Victor Pereira took out Drew Brugham and Drew Adams 6-1, while the team of sophomore Vuk Vuckovic and junior Wacil Bendjelti won 6-2 over Jhun Gumboc and Blake Miller.

 In singles, Eastern's number one seed, Dula defeated Whitworth's Brigham in a complete sweep 6-0, 6-0. A similarly dominant victory came from junior Rendell Burghart with a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Gumboc. In the number two spot, Pereira took down Miller, 6-2, 6-2, and the other wins came from Vuckovic 6-0, 6-3, and Wacil Bendjelti 6-2, 6-0. While the closest match came from senior Eduardo Bringold, with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Layne Ryerson.

EWU continued its strong doubles play against Seattle later that day. They swept the Seattle pairings, winning all three matches. Dula and Pereira controlled their match once again, beating Berkabile and Stormans 6-1, while Vuckovic and Bendjelti defeated Alderson and Leahy 6-4. Junior Luke Ness won his first match of the day paired with Bringold, with a 6-4 win.

Seattle kept the match close in the singles section, winning three matches. Dula had a clear win over Ian Clare 6-0, 6-1, followed by Bringold winning 6-2, 6-1 over Alderson. The event clinching match came from Vuckovic who won 6-1, 6-3 against Berkabile.

"It was great to get off to a 2-0 start but as I have said over the years, the process is more important than the result so I was more pleased with how we made improvements in various areas and particularly from one match to the next on the same day", said head coach Steve Clark. 

"During the second match of the day, vs Seattle, we were up the doubles point after a solid effort and quickly up all four singles sets 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, and 6-1.  At that moment I was thinking 'wow, the guys have really stepped it up a notch' while at the same time reserving full judgement until it was over.  And for those who are students of the game, my 25 years of experience find this to be the case--it really isn't over until it is over because I have been on both sides of a win or loss when leading or being behind.  In this case, mid second sets we started losing the clean execution and momentum was precariously close to being lost.  At #2 we lost full momentum, and at 3 and 4 there were some iffy moments execution wise, but they pulled them out and we held on."

Next on the schedule is a match at Gonzaga on Wednesday, Jan. 27, starting at 3 p.m PST. The Eagles close out the week at home against UC Riverside on Saturday, Jan. 30 at 10 a.m. PST.

Results:

Eastern Washington – 7
Whitworth – 0

Doubles:
1. DULA, Robert/PEREIRA, Victor (EWU) def. BRIGHAM, Drew/ADAMS, Drew (WHIT) 6-1
2. VUCKOVIC, Vuk/BENDJELTI, Wacil (EWU) def. GUMBOC, Jhun/MILLER, Blake (WHIT) 6-2
3. SANDLIN, Shane/HUGHES, Caleb (WHIT) def. BRINGOLD, Eduardo/NESS, Luke (EWU) 7-6 (7-5)

Singles:
1. DULA, Robert (EWU) def. BRIGHAM, Drew (WHIT) 6-0, 6-0
2. PEREIRA, Victor (EWU) def. MILLER, Blake (WHIT) 6-2, 6-2
3. BRINGOLD, Eduardo (EWU) def. RYERSON, Layne (WHIT) 6-3, 6-4
4. VUCKOVIC, Vuk (EWU) def. ADAMS, Drew (WHIT) 6-0, 6-3
5. BENDJELTI, Wacil (EWU) def. SANDLIN, Shane (WHIT) 6-2, 6-0
6. BURGHART, Rendell (EWU) def. GUMBOC, Jhun (WHIT) 6-0, 6-0

Eastern Washington – 4
Seattle – 3

Doubles:
1. DULA, Robert/PEREIRA, Victor (EWU) def. Berkabile, Tanner/Stormans, John (SU) 6-1
2. VUCKOVIC, Vuk/BENDJELTI, Wacil (EWU) def. Alderson, Matt/Leahy, Connor (SU) 6-4
3. BRINGOLD, Eduardo/NESS, Luke (EWU) def. Schloettler, Michael/Kalmus, Jeremiah (SU) 6-4

Singles:
1. DULA, Robert (EWU) def. Clare, Ian (SU) 6-0, 6-1
2. Stormans, John (SU) def. PEREIRA, Victor (EWU) 1-6, 6-3, 6-0
3. BRINGOLD, Eduardo (EWU) def. Alderson, Matt (SU) 6-2, 6-1
4. VUCKOVIC, Vuk (EWU) def. Berkabile, Tanner (SU) 6-1, 6-3
5. Schloettler, Michael (SU) def. BENDJELTI, Wacil (EWU) 6-2, 7-5 (10-7)
6. Leahy, Connor (SU) def. BURGHART, Rendell (EWU) 7-5, 6-3