By Donnie Niehaus

   The U of L men’s tennis program extended its home winning streak to 37 with its win over Michigan State Sunday afternoon. As of press time, the team was ranked No. 29 with a 14-7 record.

The Cards defeated Michigan State 5-2, winning the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles.

Louisville is 5-1 for March, losing 4-2 to Texas A&M on March 10. The Cards recently shut out Tennessee Tech and Austin Peay at home.

With the solid doubles play of Jakob Gustafsson and Jeremy Clark, the Cards are having one of the best seasons in recent memory. The Cards relied on the doubles play of 53rd-ranked Gustafsson and Clark and the 50th-ranked tandem of Mark Kennedy and Jhonny Berrido.

“I feel good about this win,” U of L head coach Rex Ecarma said. “Tennessee Tech is a dangerous team. Our players handled themselves with maturity, which is a positive sign for a good team. We played without our number one player, Damar Johnson, and still had the depth for a shutout. This should help our confidence in a long season.”

After the early home sweep in March, the team traveled to the Blue/Grey National Invitational and suffered the Texas A&M Corpus Christi loss. Jeremy Blandin and Maxime Gobin defeated the Cards’ Clark and Johnson 8-6 at the top seed while Raul Rivas and Oscar Roman downed Kennedy and Berrido 8-5 at the No. 3 seed.

In singles action, Texas A&M’s Rivas defeated Radman 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 and Figueiredo beat Octavian Nicodim 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4. Govin closed the match with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win over Clark at the five-spot. Louisville’s Johnson, No. 87 in the International Tennis Association singles rankings, defeated Blandin 6-4, 7-6 at the top seed and Nicolas Houard picked up a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 6 for the Cards’ other point.

But the Cards regrouped for a big victory over the Monarch of Old Dominion.

After Clark and Gustafsson lost the first doubles match 9-8, and the team of Tony Teufel and Johnson lost 8-6, the Cards took the final doubles match.

In singles action, Johnson defeated No. 25 Van der Merwe 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 at the top seed. Gustafsson’s 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 win over Cancado at No. 3 proved to be the match-winner for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals continued in the Blue/Grey and faced Colorado. After trailing 3-0, the Cards fought back to win 4-3. Cardinal match winners included Radman, Clark, Gustafsson and Johnson.

“This is the first time in memory that a Louisville team has come back from such a deep deficit to win,” Ecarma said.

“The players kept their composure and stayed positive, even though it did not look good. Jeremy Clark had a much-needed win. Jakob Gustafsson continued playing great tennis. Damar Johnson, after three straight wins at No. 1, proved he is one of the country’s top players. The hero of the match was Slavko Radman, who came back from being down 1-3 to win 6-4 in the third set. It was great to see different players win in crucial and pressure-filled moments.”

The Cards are slated to take on Virginia Tech Friday at 10 a.m. and William & Mary Saturday at 1 p.m.

Glypie Grider, Sports Editor, contributed to this story.