UIS Tennis soared to the top as they defeated Maryville; however UIS struggled to maintain the lead as they slipped away from University of Missouri St. Louis.

On March 29, UIS men and women faced the Maryville Saints and both teams dominated in doubles and singles. UIS men finished strong and beat Maryville in a near sweep of 8-1, while the women won with a score of 5-4

UIS men started strong in doubles winning every match; however, the Saints were able to grab one win in singles by a tiebreaker.

On the wins, UIS junior Jose Luis Ortega said, “We have to win three of seven games to make conference, and the victory against Maryville was the second win and it has helped us become one step closer to making conference.”

UIS women took two out of three matches in the doubles and grabbed three of six matches in singles against Maryville. Senior Alex Kinzinger grabbed a win.

“My doubles partner, Cassidy Burkardt, and I had to continually talk during our match to figure out what kind of strategy and shots would beat the other team and which were not working for us. The obvious benefit to beating Maryville was that we got another win,” Kinzinger said. “During singles, I was able to beat my opponent fairly easily, so I used that opportunity to take risks and try shots I normally wouldn’t. The only drawback was that UIS couldn’t take a clean sweep of Maryville, but a win’s a win.”

Ortega won his singles match, giving UIS one point.

“Although we lost, it felt great to win in my singles,” said Ortega.” I was the last guy in the court and I was losing 7-5, and then 6-1 in the tiebreaker of the second set. I came back wining 8-6 and in the third set I won 10-6,” Ortega said.

Losing against UMSL did not hurt UIS men’s tennis in the long run. “It’s upsetting that we could not beat UMSL, because we would make conference, but we have four matches left and need to win one and I know our team can do it,” Ortega said.

UIS tennis will face Drury on April 6.