Valley net teams stop skids

The Missouri Valley College men's and women's tennis teams have been busy, if not terribly successful.

The Vikings played four matches within a five-day span, but didn't pick up a victory until the final one -- when both the men and women defeated Westminster, MVC head coach Ryan Carney's alma mater, by 8-1 scores.

The Valley men snapped a seven-match losing streak with their Monday win over the Blue Jays (9-5). Freshman Lorenz Pestinger claimed his first singles victory of the season with a 6-0, 6-4 decision at No. 1 over sophomore Myles Yokeley, the former Marshall all-stater. Also coming through singles unscathed were freshmen Alonso Marroquin and Derek Gillilan of Higginsville and seniors Miguel Pacheco and Eugenio Huerta.

The Vikings (2-11) swept doubles behind the teams of Pestinger-Marroquin, Pacheco-Huerta and Gillilan and junior Blake Gutierres.

The Valley women beat Westminster (6-6) in the top five singles spots behind freshmen Altanzul Gombo, Helene Sallas and Shruti Bedi; sophomore Lindsay Tworek; and junior Nicki Erickson of Marshall.

The Lady Vikings (2-9), who had lost five in a row, got doubles wins from the duos of Gombo-Erickson, Sallas-Bedi, and Tworek and junior Jayme Pettigrew.

Before then, it had been rough going. The Valley men had lost to Heart of America Conference rivals Graceland and Benedictine -- ranked 1-2 in NAIA Region V -- by 9-0 scores and NCAA Division II member Truman State, 8-1. Those three squads boast a combined 28-3 record, and Carney admitted that while the Vikings "played okay," they were "overmatched." Valley's only winner was Gillilan at No. 5 singles against the Bulldogs.

The Lady Vikings also had a rough go of it against the same schools, which had a cumulative 31-1 mark. While Graceland and Truman State both posted 9-0 wins, Valley split the six singles duels against Benedictine during a 6-3 loss -- Sallas, Erickson and Tworek coming out on top.

The Vikings are scheduled to play at William Jewell today, and at least they do so coming off an emotional lift.

"The Westminster match gave us some needed confidence for some very winnable matches we have coming up," Carney said.