River Forest, Ill. - Traveling to Concordia Chicago for an afternoon conference match, the Illinois Tech men's tennis team was looking to lock down their position in the NACC postseason tournament with a win over the Cougars. The Scarlet Hawks found what they were looking for, as they swept the host 7-0, and in the process earned the number two seed in the tournament and a first-round bye. The Hawks concluded NACC play 5-1, and improved to 10-8 overall. The Cougars fell to 0-6 in conference and to 1-12 overall.

With the number two seed, the Scarlet Hawks won't play their first conference tournament match until Thursday, May 1st, in the semifinal round. The Hawks, much like number one seed MSOE, won't know their opponent until the conclusion of the quarterfinal round on Monday, April 28th.

The Scarlet Hawks started strong out of the gate, taking all three doubles matches to earn the lone doubles point and an early 1-0 match lead. Alexander Feher and Avneet Singh gave the Hawks the first doubles win when they defeated Collin Dickey and Reynaldo Leal 6-3 in the number one doubles match. Pedro Caroa-Accino Roca and Hozumi Tada followed with a 6-0 sweep against Samuel Smith and Nathan Stringer in the number two doubles match. Roca and Tada have strung together an eight match doubles winning streak. Completing the doubles match sweep was Pol Dueso Guell and Eduardo Lopez, with their 6-0 victory over Kevin Bullens and Kyle Pelzek in the number three singles match.

Singles play was all Illinois Tech, as the Scarlet Hawks won all six matches to complete the overall match victory, 7-0. Tada crossed the finish line first, winning his number four match 6-0, 6-0 against Smith. For Tada, it was his eighth consecutive singles match victory. Roca was next with his 6-2, 6-1 win over Dickey in the number one match, his sixth singles match win in a row. Feher blanked his opponent, Stringer, 6-0, 6-0 in the number two singles match, also earning his sixth singles win in a row, and in doing so, clinched the overall match victory for the Hawks by giving them the deciding fourth match point. The Scarlet Hawks carried on, however. Lopez defeated Bullens 6-0, 6-1 in the number five match, extending his team-leading singles winning streak to nine matches. Dueso Guell claimed the number three singles match 6-0, 6-0, his eighth consecutive singles match victory. And Avneet Singh closed out CUC's Diego Loveshe 6-0, 6-1 in the number six match for his sixth singles win in a row.

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks will be idle until Saturday, April 26th, when they travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin to play Carthage College at 3:00 PM in a non-conference match as a tuneup to the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference men's tennis tournament the following week.