With a 5-2 record and currently holding third place in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, the Benedictine University tennis team looks to continue the strong start to the season with three conference games this week. Benedictine will host Concordia University Chicago on Wednesday and play road matches at Aurora University and Lakeland College on Friday and Saturday.
The Eagles jumped to third in the NACC standings after defeating Wisconsin Lutheran College and Alverno College at home back on September 13. BenU has been very strong in singles this season, going 31-11 for a .738 winning percentage. Playing out of the third spot,
Micah Goyao is 7-0, while
Andrea Goyao and
Kam Haifleigh are 6-1 in the top two spots.Â
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Wednesday: vs. Concordia-Chicago (2-5, 2-4), 4:00 p.m.
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Benedictine will play host to Concordia-Chicago on Wednesday in Aurora, Illinois at the Vaughan Athletic Center. At 2-4, the Cougars sit in seventh place in the NACC, just outside of the conference tournament picture. After opening the season with a win over Marian University, the Cougars dropped four straight before defeating Milwaukee School of Engineering on September 13. In their last matchup, CUC lost to Aurora 8-1 on September 16.
Last season, the Eagles defeated the Cougars 8-1 in conference play, their most convincing win over the Cougars in the last five years. The victory was BenU's first of the 2013 season and the first in the BenU career of Head Coach
Jonathon Schmidt. CUC has only defeated BenU once in that span, winning 5-4 in 2011.Â
Friday: at Aurora (5-4, 5-2), 3:00 p.m.
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The BenU-AU rivalry will take to the tennis court on Friday, as the Eagles and Spartans will oppose each other at 3:00 p.m. Aurora, which plays their home matches at Washington Middle School, sits in a tie for third with Benedictine with a 5-2 conference record. Like BenU, Aurora's two losses in NACC play have come against the conference unbeaten: Concordia University Wisconsin and Edgewood College.
Last season, the Eagles and Spartans met twice. After falling to the Spartans 6-3 in the regular season, the Eagles prevailed 5-4 in the first round of the NACC Tournament.Â
Saturday: at Lakeland (1-6, 1-5), 2:00 p.m.
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Instead of the typical Saturday NACC tennis doubleheader, BenU plays once Friday and once Saturday this weekend. Saturday's matchup will be at Lakeland College, where BenU will take on the 1-6 Muskies. Lakeland has struggled thus far, as the team's lone conference win came against a Marian team that is winless in NACC play. However, Lakeland is coming off of a strong 2013 season, as the Muskies went 9-2 and reached the semifinals of last year's NACC Tournament.
Last season, Lakeland defeated Benedictine 6-3 despite Haifleigh winning the third singles match 6-0, 6-0 and
Micah Goyao and
Bhavana Movva winning the second doubles set 8-3. The 6-3 win was Lakeland's first over BenU in the history of the NACC, as the Eagles defeated Lakeland in each of the seven prior seasons.
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