By Mike DeSanto
Sports Editor
The St. Bonaventure University men’s and women’s tennis teams picked up a pair of losses on Saturday against the Saint Francis Red Flash, with the men losing 6-1 and the women falling 5-2.
The men got their only point from freshman Lukas Linden Malmberg, who topped senior Eli Cerdan in three sets: 6-3, 1-6, 10-4.
Sophomore Indra Patwardhan and freshman John Rutkowski nearly contributed wins for the Bonnies in singles, but took tight losses. Patwardhan lost his first set against freshman Arturo Dell’eva, but came back to win the second set 6-3, before dropping the third set 6-1. Rutkowski fell is his first set 6-2 and came close to forcing a third set, but lost the second 7-5 to sophomore Jan Vit Suntar.
In doubles, the tandem of Patwardhan and Malmberg came the closest to winning, losing 7-5 to Suntar and Dell’eva.
On the women’s side, due to the Red Flash only having five players, the Bonnies earned wins in the sixth singles match and the third doubles match. They picked up the doubles point when the combination of senior Mara Martinez-Santori and junior Gabriella Bowe defeated sophomore Stephanie Miller and freshman Laura Gutierrez 6-3.
Martiniez-Santori, Bowe and freshman Kahlei Reisinger each pushed their singles matches to three sets before ultimately losing. Martinez-Santori lost to freshman Lucia Seigford 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, while Bowe fell to Gutierrez 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Reisinger and freshman Kathryn Dunleavy split the first two sets 6-4, 2-6, before playing a long third set which ended in a Dunleavy win, 10-6.
The women will next play on the road on March 17 at Akron when they take on UW-Milwaukee at 1 p.m. The men will play March 18 at home against Dayton at 10 a.m.
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
