MOLINE, Ill. – Coach Jon Miedema's Augustana men got the spring portion of the 2017-18 schedule under way on Saturday, splitting a pair of duals with Wabash and Edgewood at the Quad City Tennis Club. Despite playing shorthanded, the Vikings battled Wabash before falling 5-4 in their first contest, but rebounded to defeat Edgewood 9-0 later in the day. Now 2-1 in dual meets this season, Augustana is back at home on Friday, February 2 to host Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
 
WABASH 5, AUGUSTANA 4
 
Augustana captured two of the three singles matches against the Little Giants. Junior Jack Morkin (University HS, Bloomington, Ill.) and freshman Caio DeRezende (Sao Paulo, Brazil) were 8-4 winners over Jordan Greenwell and Andrew Denning at number two and the freshman duo of Tom Friberg (Lund, Sweden) and Rodrigo Medeiros (Brazil) posted an 8-3 win over George Go and Kirill Ivaschenko at number three. Senior Samuel Totten (University HS, Normal, Ill.) and freshman Peter Alex (Hinsdale South HS, Darien, Ill.) fell at number one by a score of 8-4 to William Reifeis and Patrick McAuley.
 
With last year's numbers one and two—Totten and senior Eric Pohl (Fremd HS, Palatine, Ill.)—sitting out of singles play, Miedema's lineup included five freshman. DeRezende stepped into the first singles spot and posted a 2-6, 6-2, 10-2 win over Reifeis. The Vikings' other win came at number six, where Medeiros was a 7-6, 2-6, 10-8 victor over Denning.
 
Friberg dropped a 2-6, 7-5, 12-10 heartbreaker to Ivaschenko at fourth singles and Alex and Morkin each fell 6-4, 6-4 at numbers two and three to McAuley and Greenwell, respectively. Freshman Guilherme Calixto (Presindente Prudente, Brazil) suffered a 6-1, 6-2 setback to Nicholas Pollock at fifth singles.
 
AUGUSTANA 9, EDGEWOOD 0
 
Miedema shuffled his lineup further in the team's second dual of the day. Junior Alex Riddle (York HS, Elmhurst, Ill.) and sophomore Ryan Sullivan (The Gow School, Winnetka, Ill.) teamed up for an 8-0 whitewash of Jacob Huntoon and Zhen Hao Lee at third doubles. At number one, Morkin and DeRezende downed Evan Stone and Marius Dornhagen 8-2 and at number two, sophomore Scott Daluga (Libertyville HS, Libertyville, Ill.) and Calixto were 8-5 winners over Jackson Venske and Sabastian Seeger.
 
Augustana didn't drop a set in sweeping the singles competition. Alex, moving to number one, scored a 6-2, 6-3 win over Stone. Morkin defeated Seeger 6-0, 6-2 at second singles and Calixto downed Dornhagen 6-0, 6-2 at number three.
 
Daluga was a 6-2, 6-0 winner over Venske at fourth singles and Riddle and Medeiros both won love, love over Huntoon and Lee at numbers five and six, respectively.