Arroyo leads Bears to historic win

Wednesday, January 23

Denver, Colo.

5:30 PM

University of Northern Colorado

Denver

UNC celebrates after beating SMU.

1/28/2019 12:15:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score 3

By: Ryan Ronan

DALLAS, Texas – Playing one of the top teams in the country, UNC found itself trailing Southern Methodist 3-1 with three matches left. Adding to the intrigue, Adolfo Arroyo trailed 3-0 in the second set in of his match.

"I went over to Adolfo and told him that his teammates are going to come through and tie this match up and that it's going to come down to him," said UNC head coach Ben Gendron. "He had to take it one point at a time in order to complete the comeback."

Alex Exsted and Julian Kenzlers did just that and came through to put all the pressure on Arroyo to win his match and break the 3-3 deadlock. And he responded rebounding from the 3-0 hole to win the second set 7-5. Riding the momentum of the comeback, Arroyo took advantage and went up 5-1. Fighting through cramps, Gardiner Perotti made a charge of his own, which brought him back to 5-3.

"Adolfo was pretty nervous. I told him to hit every ball into the middle of the court as Perotti didn't have enough legs to put the ball past him. Adolfo did just that and after a minute and 30 seconds Perotti missed the 47th ball into the net," Gendron said.

This wasn't any ordinary victory for Arroyo or UNC tennis.

"This is the best win in program history and this is a huge win for our program to go into a historic facility like SMU's and pull out the comeback win. It just shows no matter what these guys play with everything they have every single match. They never give up and they have so much pride for the University. We will need to refocus as a team and coaching staff after a win like this, but it shows we are capable of a lot and the guys have the confidence to go out and beat anyone who is in front of them," said Gendron.

UNC had to regroup and get ready to take on a good Nebraska team just a couple hours later. Unfortunately, the Huskers took advantage of the riding-high Bears to win 4-0.

Singles Results
Toby Boyer over Kyle Pease 6-1 and 6-4.
Victor Moreno over Arroyo 7-6 and 6-3.
Chris Dean over Exsted 7-6 and 6-3.

Doubles Results
Issac Nortey/William Gleason over Pease/Tommy Smalley 6-2.
Moreno/Klousia over Arroyo/Kenzlers 6-3.

Northern Colorado started a bust week against Denver However, it was the Pioneers who earned their first victory 7-0 in the new Denver Tennis Park on Wednesday.

The Bears struggled in doubles, with No. 1 Kyle Pease/Tommy Smalley falling 6-2, No. 2 Julian Kenzlers/Adolfo Arroyo falling 5-2, and No. 3 Nick Wade/Michael Kritzinger falling 6-1

DU was able to secure the victory with Ignatius Castelino beating Tommy Smalley 6-4, 6-3 in No. 5 singles. Alex Exsted battled it out with Daniel Krulig in No. 6 singles, going three sets in a loss 4-6, 6-3, 0-1.

UNC has some time off to recuperate before they host Montana on Feb. 9 in the Big Sky opener.