MOLINE, Ill. – Putting the opening weekend of the 2015 men's tennis season in the rearview mirror, the Augustana men's tennis team posted a pair of impressive victories in its home opener on Saturday, February 7 at the Quad City Tennis Club in Moline, Illinois. The Vikings of head coach Jon Miedema defeated St. Ambrose and Monmouth by identical scores of 7-2 to even their record at 2-2 on the season.
 
Just one week ago Augustana opened the season in Crawfordsville, Indiana with a pair of losses. The Vikings fell to eighth ranked Case Western 8-1 and to host Wabash 5-1. The wins on Saturday at the indoor courts of the QC Tennis Club got Miedema's young team back on track.
 
Freshman Samuel Totten (University HS, Normal, Ill.) helped lead the way by winning two matches at number one singles and two at number one doubles where he teamed with another freshman, Eric Pohl (Fremd HS, Palatine, Ill.).
 
Doubles play was a key in both matches as Augustana went 6-0 on the day and started each match with 3-0 advantages after doubles.
 
The Vikings will host Simpson at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, February 8 at the QC Tennis Club.
 
AUGUSTANA 7, ST. AMBROSE 2
 
Augustana jumped out to a 3-0 advantage after doubles and went on to secure a 7-2 win over Quad City rival St. Ambrose. The number one doubles team of freshmen Totten and Pohl got things started with an 8-2 win at number one over Mitchell Schumacher and Bryan Espinosa. The number two team of junior Harald Olsson (Hersby Gymnasium, Stockholm, Sweden) and junior Patrick Lenz (Villanova Prep, Ojai, Calif.) beat Lucas powers and Dave Smith 8-3 and the number three unit of sophomore Jonathon Elsey (York HS, Elmhurst, Ill.) and sophomore Nicholas Prabhakar (Rockford Lutheran HS, Belvidere, Ill.) picked up an 8-4 win over Jimmy Kotany and Kevin Becker.
 
Totten rolled past Schumacher 6-2; 6-1 at number one singles and Lenz defeated Smith 6-1; 7-5 at number three. Olsson, who played number two singles for the Vikings in 2013 before going back to Sweden for a year, is back in the lineup and he handled Espinosa 3-6; 6-3; 10-4 at number four. Elsey won 6-4; 6-3 over Powers at number five.
 
AUGUSTANA 7, MONMOUTH 2
 
Once again the Vikings jumped out to a 3-0 lead in doubles and that proved to be a key as they defeated Monmouth 7-2 in the second match of the day.
 
Totten and Pohl were triumphant at number one doubles once again, this time defeating Landon Walker and Saxon Day 8-2. Olsson teamed with junior Austin Schoeck (Alleman Catholic HS, Rock Island, Ill.), who missed the morning match because he was taking an entrance exam for graduate school, and they beat Marco Franco and Derek Rineberg 8-6 at number two.
 
Lenz and sophomore Connor Woolf (Evanston HS, Evanston, Ill.) beat Paulo Pliego and Dylan Wong 8-6 at number three doubles to complete the 3-0 sweep for Augustana.
 
Totten picked up his fourth victory of the day with a 6-2; 6-1 win over Walker at number one singles. Pohl, who lost a tight match against St. Ambrose, bounced back and beat Day 6-1; 6-4 at number two singles.
 
Lenz handled Franco 6-4; 6-2 at number four singles and Elsey beat Wong in a long three setter 6-7; 6-3; 10-3.