Iowa men’s tennis cruised past South Dakota State (7-0, 6-0) Sunday afternoon at the Hawkeye Tennis & Recreation Complex, kicking off the doubleheader by snatching all the doubles matches.
Jake Jacoby and Joe Tyler claimed a 6-1 victory, followed by a 6-2 win from Kareem Allaf and Will Davies and a sweep from Jason Kerst and Josh Silverstein.
Iowa claimed all the singles matches against the Jackrabbits in straight sets. Silverstein prevailed over Emerson Styles (6-2, 6-2) in the first match and (6-1, 6-3) in the second.
Kerst made an appearance in singles, sweeping Henrique Stemmer in the first match and defeating Alberto Gonzalez Raton in the second (6-0, 6-2). While the sophomore stretched his winning streak to five, he also continued in his role on the team.
“[Head coach Ross Wilson] kind of explained to me that I can be the rock of this team, be the energizer of this team, and I’ve tried to do my best to embrace that role,” Kerst said. “I think that being vocal is invaluable to this team.”
Shortly before defeating the Jackrabbits, the Hawkeyes snapped their seven-year losing streak with Northwestern, taking down the Wildcats (4-1).
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Iowa took an early lead, securing the doubles point in two-straight matches. Piotr Smietana and Davies swept Michael Lorenzini and Nick Brookes, followed by an upset from Allaf and Jonas Larsen against No. 56 Ben Vandixhorn and Dominik Stary (6-4).
Tyler moved up one spot in the Iowa lineup and claimed his fourth conference win against Vandixhorn (6-4, 6-3). After a close first set, Allaf took down 115th-ranked Antonioni Fasano (6-2) in his second set for the third Iowa point. Smietana then handed the Wildcats their only point, dropping straight sets to Stary (6-3, 6-4).
Davies clinched the match for the Hawkeyes in three sets. The freshman took his first set against Jason Seidman (6-4) but fell (6-2) in the second. Davies came back in set three to win (6-3) and seize the fourth team point.
Iowa also faced No. 7 Illinois on March 31. The Illini topped the Hawkeyes (5-2) and remained undefeated in the Big Ten.
The Hawkeyes came out strong in doubles with Allaf and Larsen claiming the first Iowa win, upsetting the No. 47 Aleks Vukic and Aron Hiltzik (6-4). Tyler and Jacoby clinched the doubles point after a tiebreaker match, picking up their fifth-straight doubles victory this season. Smietana and Davies left a tight 6-6 match unfinished.
But singles competition swung in favor of the Illini. Smietana made his first No. 1 appearance in Big Ten competition against Illinois senior, Vukic. Falling in straight sets (6-3, 6-4), the freshman handed Illinois its first point of the match.
The Illini then snared the lead, taking points in the next three matches. Larsen dropped straight sets to sophomore Zeke Clark (6-4, 6-4), followed by Allaf and Davies. After losing the first tiebreaker set, Davies fell, 6-2, in the second to Caleb Chakravarthi.
Nationally ranked Illinois freshman Alex Brown defeated Silverstein. After snagging the first set, the Iowa senior dropped his final two sets (6-2, 6-4). Tyler secured the only Hawkeye singles point, defeating No. 103 Hitzik after a third-set retirement. The win was Tyler’s first against a ranked opponent in his Iowa career.
The Hawkeyes boast an 11-4 home record this season.
“We’ve done a good job,” said head coach Ross Wilson. “This is probably our best home record since I’ve been head coach here. That’s one of the things we talked about, is that if we want to accomplish our goals, make the NCAA Tournament and finish in the top five of the Big Ten, we’re going to need to make the most out of these home matches, and I think we’ve done a good job so far.”
