As if beating one ranked team wasn’t enough.

The 10th-ranked Wash. U. men’s tennis team had a victorious weekend, defeating No. 25 Carthage College on Saturday before again emerging triumphant against No. 17 Graceland University just one day later, extending their overall record to 7-3 with the victories. Graceland is an NAIA school and thus goes by a different ranking system than NCAA members..

On Saturday at Forest Park, the Bears swept Carthage 9-0, winning all three doubles matches before concluding the performance by taking all six singles matches. Freshman Charlie Cutler led the way for the Bears, defeating Carthage’s Miguel Yunes, 6-4 2-6 6-4. John Watts, also a freshman, took down Sergio Lopez by a more convincing score, 6-1, 6-3.

Sophomore Chris Hoeland continued the trend, upending Dave Sands, 6-3 7-6.

Sunday brought a whole new challenge, as No. 17 Graceland University was in town for a 1 p.m. showdown at the Tao Tennis Center on Wash. U. campus.

As the three doubles matches began, Wash. U. took the early lead, winning third doubles, as the sophomore tandem of Nirmal Choradia and Trevis Bowman captured the eight-game pro-set, 8-5. Watts and Captain Charlie Howard also won, 8-5, bringing victory at third doubles.

First doubles put forth a valiant effort but found themselves trailing late into their match. Down 7-6, and not serving, Wash. U. was able to break the Graceland serve for the second time. Ultimately, however, the Bears fell in a tightly-contested tie-break, losing, 8-7 (7-5).

The singles matches began auspiciously for the Bears, as Watts took the first set of his second singles match against Carlos Cordova, 6-0. Wash. U. captured the first set of all six singles contests.

Cutler and the rest of the Bears continued to dominate, not dropping a single set among five matches. Up 7-1 overall and with the victory in hand, the lone result in question came at the second singles position, where Watts unexpectedly found himself battling both his opponent and the heat. After facing little opposition in the first set, Watts dropped the second, 6-2.

“I was really cruising along in the first set, but in the second, he really stepped up his game,” Watts said. “He started making all of his first serves,” adding that his opponent was “unstoppable for a few games.” Fatigue, however, ultimately overcame Cordova, as Watts was able to prevail, 7-5 in the third set, capping the Bears’ 8-1 victory.

“He was struggling with the heat, and his big serve started to slow down,” Watts stated. “Some matches just take longer than others,” he added, relieved to have won.

Watts, the 10th-ranked singles player in all of Division III tennis, is looking forward to the rest of the season. “I think we should be very successful in upcoming matches against several local schools,” he said. “We have proven we can compete with anyone in the nation, and I think we have a good shot of going deep in the NCAA tournament in May.”

First, though, the Bears will need to continue to pile up high-quality wins. This weekend went a long way towards doing that, as the home team turned in extremely impressive showings on consecutive days.

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